At Home: Judit Varga: Some Actions Taken During Emergencies May Remain Later

In the introduction to the article, Boris Kálnoky, the newspaper’s correspondent, noted that Judit Varga said it was a “pseudo” manifestation of the “dictatorship of liberal opinion” that the new Hungarian law on protection against the coronary virus epidemic would empty democracy . The Minister emphasized that the extraordinary legal order would end as soon as the danger passed, which was an “objective criterion”, since it would be “quite clear” not only in Hungary but also internationally when the pandemic would end and with it the emergency.

However, this does not mean that the emergency will arise in consultation with others. This “must be decided by each country,” said Judit Varga, according to MTI.

The Minister rejected Vera Jourová, the European Commissioner for Securities and European Transparency, demanding that the government return her special mandate shortly. As he said, the emergency ordered due to the epidemic will be withdrawn at the appropriate time “not a day earlier than necessary and not a day later.”

Regarding that the EU Commissioner said that the emergency laws introduced in many member states were a potential threat to democracy, the Minister emphasized that the generalization was incorrect. As long as these laws are within the framework of the constitution and the constitutional court is operational, democracy is not in danger, neither in Hungary nor in other European states, he said.

He added that Parliament would decide to eliminate the emergency situation, so the law to protect against the epidemic would strengthen Parliament. With the suggestion that Fidesz has a two-thirds majority on the board, making it unlikely that he will make a decision contrary to the government’s intentions, he claimed that anyone who opposes this is having a problem with the Hungarian electorate.

As he said, this is not a legal problem, but a political one. He noted that voters decided two years ago to endow the government with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, and in two years they will decide again.

When asked why there was no time limit set in the legislation, he said that much stronger parliamentary scrutiny had been incorporated. Parliament can revoke the government’s mandate at any time, which is a “much stronger guarantee” than if a time limit had been included in the law, in which “heaven knows what position the country can be in” . He added that the measures taken at the time of the emergency would automatically expire when that legal order ceased to exist.

However, it is conceivable that some measures are still needed, but this will be decided by parliament, so these decisions will be “regular laws, not regulations.”

Judit Varga emphasized that the statements about the dismissal of the parliament show that the western press did not understand something. Until the end of the session, on June 15, the legislature will continue to work “completely normal”, the courts will function, and the Constitutional Court will function, that is, the “checks and balances” system will continue to apply.

The government acts only in cases that require an immediate decision outside the usual legislative process, for example, because the interests of citizens and the economy require the immediate repayment of loans. The special power is to resolve these cases and is limited only to them, explained the Minister of Justice.

Therefore, the accusations made by the EU and the European People’s Party (PPE) that democracy is being emptied in Hungary through a state of emergency are, in fact, “false news” and manifestations of a “liberal dictatorship “European. “These people are really upset by the fact that there is a two-thirds conservative majority in Hungary,” said Judit Varga. He added that

in particular, his conversations with the Secretary of State for European Affairs of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Michael Roth, a politician from the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), were disappointing. As he said, his German interlocutor showed no interest in his responses during his telephone conversation, he simply wanted to document that he had expressed his concerns and, despite his request, refused to name those parts of the law that he considered objectionable.

Judit Varga stressed that she was outraged by these phenomena and emphasized that she expected more “courage” and greater “solidarity” from the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). He suggested that “our Christian Democrat friends” do not declare “publicly, boldly and in solidarity that the situation is not the one presented in the press.”

According to him, the PPE leadership “deliberately creates tensions” against the will of most member parties, which is “extremely damaging”, as, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán noted in a letter to CDU President Annegret Kramp -Karrenbauer, in moments like the present, let’s keep our unity. “