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Constitution changes no threat to democracy, Hungary PM
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds a news conference ahead of a European Union leaders summit in Brussels March 14, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Yves Herman
BRUSSELS |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed criticism on Thursday that changes his government has made to the constitution are anti-democratic, saying there was no evidence of any contravention of European Union rules.
The EU, the United States and human rights organizations have criticized the constitutional amendments and say they could limit the power of Hungary's top court and undermine democracy in the former Soviet satellite.
"Who is able to present even one single point of evidence -facts, may I say - which could be the basis for any argument that what we are doing is against democracy?" the conservative Orban told reporters ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.
"Without facts there is no sense of any general political discussion," he said.
Orban is likely to face more disapproval at the two-day summit. Many of his peers see the changes as the latest effort by the prime minister to assert power over other branches of the state.
Since returning to office in 2010, Orban has defied the EU on principles such as media freedom and central bank independence, resisted pressure from the International Monetary Fund to change economic policies, and angered foreign investors.
The latest changes restrict the constitutional court to challenging laws only on procedural grounds, not on their substance, and scrap all decisions made by the court before 2012, discarding a body of case law often used as reference.
Hungary's forint currency fell on foreign exchange markets on Thursday due to growing concerns about the constitutional amendments and an aggressive shake-up by the new governor of the central bank, a close Orban associate.
(Reporting by Luke Baker and Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Paul Taylor)
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‘The latest changes restrict the constitutional court to challenging laws only on procedural grounds, not on their substance’ – this is just simpy not true. The court still has the right to challenge the laws on their substance.
‘scrap all decisions made by the court before 2012, discarding a body of case law often used as reference’ – Hungary has a new Constitution – would it be normal to use the decisions from the previous?? I do not think. The role of the Constitutional Court to challenging the laws against the actual Constitution – not against the repealed.
Nice journalist work….
What kind of ugly photo is that of the PM? Was it the objective to make him look like a paranoic madman dictator? (Job well done!)
What kind of presentation ‘former Soviet satellite’ is for Hungary?
Do you normally present Poland or the Czech Republic in that way in your political articles? Or is it just to give a bad taste of mouth as a starter on Orban?
‘Orban has defied the EU on principles such as media freedom and central bank independence’ Why don’t you mention that the central bank law issue was finally settled in a satisfactory way with the EU in early 2012? ‘Media freedom’ is an even more subjective question, but if one has doubts just go to the main Hungarian news sites (index.hu, origo.hu) and google translate some articles to see it for yourself.
And this thing in the article about restricting the constitutional court: I would call that Soviet journalism. Congratulations!
Actually, seeing the recent full blown international propaganda outburst against Hungary, – I am more worried about the media freedom in the West than in Hungary. And BTW, those who really care about democracy and rights and stuff like that, – go and find some more serious issue in the world (I guess there must be some…)
The Constitutional Court has the right to test the conformity of laws against international commitments, not only against the Constitution. By the way, Hungary has no constitution, only a “basic law”. So what? Actually this change is only symbolic. But writing into the basic law stipulations which are in contradiction to its original body to avoid the judgement of the Constitutional Court is less than normal. And the content is antidemocratic. Of course those whop only read government propaganda, do not see any concrete objections. Would they read more or listen to the young demonstrators (independent of any party, they even sent away party politicians who appeared on their demonstration), or only to the ex-president of the Hungarian Republic whom they elected to that post and who supported them strongly in taking power, they would hear more than enough.
I would not go into the debate about the value of past decisions, but as this is an American site, it is worth noting that there is no law of precedent in Hungary, the system is statute law, not common law, thus the gesture would be simply symbolic, wouldn’t there be a body of “Invisible Constitution, the system of basic democratic values, embodied in these decisions, mainly by Mr Sólyom, the mentioned ex president, who was the first president of the Constitutional Court also.
Mr Domokos, you are symply paranoiac. Orban looks like that, and Hungary is an ex Soviet satellite.
As far as media freedom is concerned, you mention google, which is not Hungarian, Index which is slowly being occupied by the government (some 15 journalists left following the chief editor after takeover by a satellite of Sándor Csányi, a football-mate of Orban. But you only talk about internet. What about the slef-inflicted censorship of the written press, the continuous falsification in public TV and radio, the long endeavour to silence Klubradio? About forbidding every media except street posters in the hand of the master of Orban, Mr Simicska and the public media (the independence of which is nil)?
Last but not least, the independence of the Central Bank was setttled in a way that what Orban and the FIDESZ stated to be in conformity with EU values, had to be abandoned. So is the case with the present changes (which are more than the ones mentioned). They will have to be withdrawn, just like the retirement of judges (which annullation was not put into practice yet). So more modesty, dear government echos.
I would last but not least
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