Emergency as a pretext for restricting political rights : the Hungarian autocratic regime at work

Abstract

Since March 2020 there has been a continuous special legal order declared in Hungary. The state of emergency now seems to be becoming permanent. Exceptional powers of governments pose a serious risk to the system of the separation of powers and fundamental rights even in consolidated democracies, but it can be particularly dangerous in ‘illiberal’, ‘hybrid’, or ‘populist’ regimes, such as in present-day Hungary. Therefore, the chapter examines the impact of the long-standing authorisation by the Hungarian government for almost unlimited power with respect to political rights. In doing so, it describes how several rights and freedoms have been restricted by emergency government decrees, from the right to assembly to freedom of expression. The chapter also explores the formal justifications for the restrictions of rights, their necessity, proportionality, and consequences. The core argument of the chapter is the claim that the potential for abuse of exceptional power lies not, in the first place, in the seriousness of the threat it is designed to combat, but in the weakness or dysfunctionality of the constitutional guarantees or, more broadly, the political-constitutional context in which it is applied.