Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted a statement on Facebook on Tuesday evening, announcing the government’s plans to declare a national emergency. In such a situation, the Hungarian government is given the power to govern by decree and decisions do not have to go through parliament.
The state of emergency is justified by the war in Ukraine.
– The world is on the brink of an economic crisis, says Viktor Orbán in the video, according to Reuters.
He also repeated his past message that Hungary must stay out of the war in order to “protect the financial security of families.” Hungary has protested against the European Commission’s proposal to stop imports of Russian oil, as part of a sixth sanctions package.
Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Hungary has irritated the rest of the EU with its pro-Russian stance. The country has moved in an increasingly authoritarian direction during the time of Orbán and his nationalist party Fidesz in power. As early as 2019, Hungary became the first EU country to be classified as an authoritarian regime by the Democracy Research Institute V-dem, and the country has been repeatedly criticized by the EU and rights groups for eroding the democratic system.
Viktor Orbán has used the same type of emergency twice before – during the migration crisis in 2015 and during the corona pandemic. The Prime Minister says that the government’s first measures, which are taken within the framework of the newly announced emergency, will be presented on Wednesday.
Fidesz won its fourth election in a row in early April. In addition to the consequences of the Ukraine war, his government has to deal with an annual inflation rate of 9.5 percent and a budget deficit that increased during the first quarter due to pre-election spending, among other things.