ECONOMIST: THE pressure is piling up on the beleaguered Hungarian government. Today the European Commission threatened it with legal action over several new “cardinal” laws that would require a two-thirds majority in parliament to overturn.
The commission is still considering the laws, but today it highlighted concerns over three issues:
– The independence of the central bank. Late last year the Hungarian parliament passed a law which expands the monetary council and takes the power to nominate deputies away from the governor and hands it to the prime minister. A separate law opens the door to a merger between the bank and the financial regulator.
– The judiciary. More than 200 judges over the age of 62 have been forced into retirement and hundreds more face the sack. The new National Judicial Authority is headed by Tünde Handó, a friend of the family of Viktor Orbán, the prime minister.
– The independence of the national data authority.
Slammed in Brussels, the Hungarian government is also under pressure at home. Earlier this week Gordon Bajnai, who served as Socialist prime minister from 2009-10, fired off a broadside that sent shockwaves through the political and media establishments…. (more)
EDITOR: Richard Field, a graduate of McCaskey High School who has lived in Hungary for twenty years, was one of the initial outspoken critics of the Fidezs government for trampling on Hungarian democracy and failiure to protect the Roma population. Field now divides his time between his home in Budapest and Lancaster due to his duties as chair of Manor Management Corporation and Manor Hotel Corporations that operate fourteen apartment complexes and four hotels.
