Orban’s Corona special powers are due to end in late May

Orban expects the government to return its emergency powers to parliament in late May, the Prime Minister said on Friday after talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, according to the Hungarian news agency MTI.

The Hungarian Parliament, controlled by Orban’s right-wing conservative Fidesz, disempowered itself with the Emergency Act. The law allowed the government to govern indefinitely through the ordinance and also suspended elections and referendums.

After the return of special powers, “we are giving everyone a chance to apologize to Hungary for the unjust accusations,” said Orban. He also called for the success of Hungarian pandemic protection to be recognized. This protection was done in a democratic framework, with “we will return to normal parliamentary order after the authority”.

Hungary will emerge from the EU debates morally and psychologically strengthened in the coming weeks, stressed the prime minister, who was accused of the Orban Act because of the Emergency Act, of using the corona crisis to establish an authoritarian regime. More than half of the EU governments joined a declaration of protest initiated by the Netherlands, while within the European People’s Party (EPP) the call for the exclusion of Orban’s right-wing conservative Fidesz grew louder.

Austria did not join the protests, but with the turquoise-green majority in the National Council called for the special powers to be withdrawn after the end of the pandemic. The EU Commission reacted with concern, but said that it saw no way to take action against Budapest.

Orban also used his visit to Belgrade to criticize EU health policy. During the coronavirus epidemic, everyone was convinced that the European Union did not have a common health policy, Orban said after the meeting with Vucic.

“In the first phase, we could not count on the EU to support us. We saw that all EU member states were dealing with their own problems and the coordination was not working,” said Orban. The EU is expected to be more successful in the second phase.

Vucic avoided criticism of Budapest at the meeting. He was not interested in whether he would be criticized or praised for the good relations between Serbia and Hungary. “If you want to have yes-sayers who will serve the interests of others, you can vote for them in a month in the elections (parliamentary elections, note on June 21). As long as I am president, Serbia will be respected and interested in interests of its citizens, “said Vucic.

At the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Vucic was itself noticed in March by sharp criticism of the EU. “There is no European solidarity – it was just a fairy tale on paper,” he said at the time. The European Union has meanwhile granted Serbia € 93 million in coronavirus funding.