Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared his victory at the recent parliamentary elections and his Fidesz party will hold a two-thirds majority in parliament. Hungarians went to the polls in higher numbers compared to the 2014 parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party Fidesz came away victorious in Sunday’s parliamentary elections receiving 49 percent of the vote according to preliminary results. With 93 percent of ballots counted Fidesz has a two-thirds majority in parliament, with a projected 133 seats of the 199 seats in the chamber.
The Fidesz-KDNP alliance was seeking its third consecutive term of victory with Viktor Orban at the helm. The 55-year-old Hungarian PM, the longest-serving Hungarian premier since the collapse of the communist bloc, led a legislative campaign that placed him as a guardian of Hungary’s ecclesiastical culture against a deluge of mass Muslim migration. And Orban’s landslide electoral triumph in Eastern Europe put his fellow political allies across the larger Union in a serious dilemma: How to celebrate the electoral gains for the right-wing coalition without seemingly bolstering defiance of Eurocentric values.
Orban celebrated his party’s gains in a speech to his grass-roots supporters, shortly after the preliminary results were made official. “Dear friends, there’s a big battle behind us, we secured a historic victory—we got a chance, we created a chance for us to protect Hungary,” the re-elected premier declared. Jobbik’s results prompted the resignation of its chairman, Gabor Vona. “Jobbik’s goal to win the election and force a change in government was not achieved,” said Vonn at a press conference, “Fidesz won. They won again.”
Some 8 million Hungarians were eligible to vote for 199 seats in the parliament, with 106 directly elected according to legislative districts and 93 elected from country-wide party lists. Sunday’s election registered a turnout of a little less than 70 percent, a figure far larger than that of the parliamentary elections a few years back. The voting booths in Hungary were closely monitored across Europe, as Orban has had a troubled relationship with institutions at the EU especially regarding his blatant resentment of the bloc’s refugee resettlement scheme applied across the Union in the last several years, let alone what most people saw as his criticism of status quo Eurocentric civil society.
There is also emerging criticism within the European Parliament that the recent Hungarian election and the political situation there may be cause for triggering the Article 7 procedure. The crux of the issue is that for one thing, MEPs see a serious deterioration of the rule of law and democracy, believing that controversial laws must be suspended or withdrawn, and lastly that EU funds of Hungary must be under stronger surveillance.
Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union provides a mechanism to enforce EU values. Under these procedural clauses, the Council may determine that there is a breach of EU values by a Member State and can act upon to prevent de facto breaches by addressing specific recommendations to the relevant party in question. This can be triggered by one-third of EU Member States, by the EP at large or by the Commission. The Council must put forward a decision by an 80 percent or larger majority after getting parliamentary consent which also requires a two-thirds majority of legislative votes cast.
In the previous plenary debate at the Parliament, MEPs have pointed out that Hungary’s current state of affairs regarding fundamental civil liberties and rights could serve as justifiable grounds for a formal procedure by the EU. If formally executed, the EU-sanctioned resolution would call for the launching of Article 7(1) the Hungarian Government to repeal laws that tighten rules against asylum-seekers and NGOs, let alone to reach an agreement with American officials. If done right, this would make it conceivable for the Central European University to remain in Budapest as a free academic institution among other things.
This Thursday, the civil liberties committee at the EU will discuss the situation in Hungary, whereby MEPs are considering if the country is at risk of a serious breach of EU values and if Article 7 procedure should be requested. The procedure could lead to possible sanctions. These are not clearly defined in the EU treaties but might include voting rights in the Council and the European Council.
By MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
