http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/world/europe/rare-opposition-protests-in-hungary.html

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Deutsch:

Scuffle in Gyongyospata, the original version of the police:

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Die Presse, April 8, 2010:

Will the conservatives change the constitution?

Navracsics [present minister of justice, Hungary]: No

["Würden die Konservativen Verfassungsänderungen vornehmen?
Navracsics: Nein."]

WSJ, April 19, 2011, Navracsics:

A new constitution was a key pledge in this government’s April 2010 election campaign.

[Via]

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“Hungary Is a Disgrace for Europe”:

[...] It’s strange, the more some countries profit from the European Union, the more prone they are to anti-European sentiments. The constitutional state has largely been abolished, future elections are effectively meaningless, the media are being whipped into line, as are theaters and museums and everything else that could shape the nation’s culture.

Barely a trace remains of pluralism, of variety, of the basic features of a free society. If you talk to people in Hungary about politics these days, you’re confronted with fear, like in the days of East Germany. In this state, Hungary no longer belongs in the EU. It is a disgrace for Europe. But Europe is saying nothing. [...]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/a-757971.html

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UN chief Ban Ki-moon

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WSJ – Best summary on 1party constitution in Hungary: http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/04/18/hungary-passes-new-constitution-amid-concerns/

“According to a survey by Median last week, 57 percent of Hungarians believed the new constitution would need to be confirmed by a referendum, and only 29 percent said it was sufficient for a two-thirds parliament majority to approve it.” http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/hungary-constitution-idUSLDE73H0TT20110418?pageNumber=2

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Hungary’s parliament passes controversial new constitution: it is the government’s attempt to cement its power beyond its term, eliminates the system of checks and balances, forces its Christian ideology on the country and limits civil liberties.

“The new constitution’s preamble is laden with references to God, Christianity, the fatherland, the “Holy Crown of Hungary,” and traditional family values, raising opposition fears about the future rights of Hungary’s atheists, homosexuals and single-parent families. [...]” http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14998392,00.html

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Werner Hoyer, Minister of State, Germany

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NYRB: Hungary has become a one party state http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/apr/28/hungary-threat/

Free access text: http://www.scribd.com/doc/53112498/Hungary-The-Threat-by-Istvan-Deak

Summary in Hungarian: http://nepszava.com/2011/04/magyarorszag/deak-istvan-magyarorszag-egyparti-allam-lett.html

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“Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:56am EDT

• Parliament to vote on new [1party] constitution on April 18.

• Civil society groups plan protest in Budapest

• Rights groups say new law will weaken checks and balances” http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/hungary-constitution-idUSLDE73D11420110415

Video [in Hungarian]:

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The state of democracy in Hungary: ‘The illness has advanced to a new stage’

A gypsy girl of maybe eight, nine years old holds onto her little brother tightly. Looking out over the chicken-wire fence at the end of their mud garden in the Roma ghetto in the village of Hejoszalonta, they stare at the around 600 members of Hungary’s fascist party, Jobbik, and its paramilitary wing, the Magyar Garda, dressed in black or camouflage or just leather jackets, marching right past where they live with torches aloft and nationalist heavy metal music blasting. [...]

The protest, which took place on Saturday (2 April), is the second such demonstration by the far-right vigilantes in a month. At the beginning of March, Jobbik and its allied blackshirts went to the village of Gyongyospata, also claiming to protect it from the crimes allegedly perpetrated by their Roma inhabitants. There the numbers were larger. According to human rights groups, quoting the local community, some 2-3000 marched repeatedly up and down the streets of the town with torches and whips. [...]

Meanwhile, the governing Fidesz-Christian Democrat coalition has remained “strangely silent”, [Judit] Kenda continued.

“By letting these armed groups roam freely, the state has abandoned its monopoly on the use of force,” she added, a line that is frequently repeated by human rights groups.

The police have stopped the human rights campaigners and the LMP from forming a human chain protecting the Roma houses, modest shacks with irregular, warping roofs and unfinished windows, ostensibly because the road through the village is “too narrow” to hold two demonstrations.

Nonetheless, the activists are relieved that at least the police are here this time. [...]

Fidesz won a two-thirds majority in the country’s 2010 general election, enough to make changes to the country’s constitution, and the party is wasting no time exploiting this power. A new constitution was submitted to parliament on 21 March after the house speaker declared the existing text void. [...]

Miklos Haraszti, until last year the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s press freedom watchdog and a co-founder in 1976 of the Hungarian Democratic Opposition Movement, told the conference: “For the first time, it is possible that Hungary will lose its freedom by throwing democracy away with simple democratic tools.” [...]

Istvan Elek, a journalist from the same generation, said: “Hungarian democracy is very ill. It was already ill in 2010, but has now advanced to a more serious stage of the illness.” [...]

Cohn-Bendit too warned that something is rotten in the state of Hungary: “If we allow a tremendous shift away from democracy in one member state, then this will happen in another member state and another.” [...]

David Dorosz [hopes] that the European Union takes some sort of action to protect Hungarian democracy, but they are not holding their breath.

“The EU should address these problems, but the EU has a very weak history in this … Our greatest fear is that Europe will lose interest in what is going on here, with everyone paying attention to Libya, Japan and so on.”

“Pressure from the EU is so important. We cannot have the EU do our job for us, but we do need their support.”

The European Commission for its part says its hands are tied as it has no legal power over the crafting of national constitutions.

“We really think it’s up to Hungarians themselves. It’s their constitution,” EU justice spokesman Matthew Newman told EUobserver. “If there are any complaints about fundamental rights violations, they should be addressed by the national authorities.”

One EU source said that in principle, the commission and parliament do have the ‘nuclear option’ at their disposal – the application of Article 7 of the EU Treaty, which requires the suspension of voting rights of a member state found to be in “serious breach” of EU “founding values” such as democracy, human rights and the protection of minorities.

“But this is meant for the suspension of habeas corpus or the institution of martial law or one-party rule. Hungary is nowhere near any of this. The country is still a constitutional democracy.”

The European Union has no sanction it can deploy in cases of governments in that murky grey area somewhere between functioning liberal democracies and outright dictatorships.

http://euobserver.com/9/32120

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OPINION ON [...] THE NEW CONSTITUTION OF HUNGARY, EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR DEMOCRACY THROUGH LAW (VENICE COMMISSION):

“[...] IV. The process of the adoption of a new Constitution

14. At the date of the visit of its delegation, the text of the draft Constitution had not yet been
released. The Commission was informed that the draft was being finalised and it was
envisaged to present it very soon to the majority’s parliamentary group (FIDESZ) and to
subsequently submit it to Parliament (by 15 March 2011). The adoption of the Constitution
was foreseen for 18 April 2011. – 5 – CDL-AD(2011)001

15. The Venice Commission notes that, while initially associated to this process in the
framework of the Ad-hoc Committee for Drafting the Constitution, the opposition forces were
for several months not participating in the elaboration of the draft and that there was no longer
a dialogue between the majority and the opposition in this regard. It understands that the
opposition’s decision to withdraw from the process was in particular linked to the limitation of
the powers of the Constitutional Court with regard to the constitutionality of Acts and Bills on
state budget and taxes, adopted by the Hungarian parliament in November 2010.

16. Moreover, concerns have been raised within the civil society over the lack of transparency
of the process and the inadequate consultation of the Hungarian society on the main
constitutional challenges to be addressed in this context. Since the draft was only submitted to
the Parliament on 14 March 2011, only limited public debate could take place on the changes
and novelties that the future Constitution might introduce.

17. The tight schedule established for its adoption is also a serious source of concern and has
been raised by most of the interlocutors of the Commission.

18. The Commission would like to recall that transparency, openness and inclusiveness,
adequate timeframe and conditions allowing pluralism of views and proper debate of
controversial issues, are key requirements of a democratic Constitution-making process.

19. In its opinion, a wide and substantive debate involving the various political forces, nongovernment organisations and citizens associations, the academia and the media is an
important prerequisite for adopting a sustainable text, acceptable for the whole of the society
and in line with democratic standards. Too rigid time constraints should be avoided and the
calendar of the adoption of the new Constitution should follow the progress made in its debate. [...]” http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/2011/CDL-AD(2011)001-e.pdf

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in English: http://tuzrakter.hu/eng.html

http://tuzrakter.hu/indexsajtoangol.html

http://www.petitions24.com/ilovetuzrakterbudapest

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“THE BASIC LAW OF HUNGARY (draft): GOD, BLESS HUNGARIANS! National Credo: [...]“:

http://www.euractiv.com/sites/all/euractiv/files/BRNEDA224_004970.pdf

http://www.euractiv.com/sites/all/euractiv/files/CONSTITUTION_in_English__DRAFT.pdf

Cf. http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/hungarys-new-constitution-family-friendly-hostile-gays-news-503455

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