Alle Artikel zu Ungarn

1984, Hungarian Edition

Kim Lane Scheppele
Kim Lane Scheppele

The Hungarian parliament recently passed a new national security law that enables the inner circle of the government to spy on people who hold important public offices. Under this law, many government officials must “consent” to being observed in the most intrusive way (phones tapped, homes bugged, email read) for up to two full months each year, except that they won’t know which 60 days they are under surveillance. Perhaps they will imagine they are under surveillance all of the time. Perhaps that is the point. More than 20 years after Hungary left the world captured in George Orwell’s novel mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

The EU in its most serious crisis ever (and that’s not the Euro crisis)

Dimitry Kochenov
Dimitry Kochenov

Following the recent fascinating exchange in the ‘pages’ of the Verfassungsblog on what to do (or not) with Hungary given the current developments there it seems to be high time to return to the very basic question on the reasons behind the Union in Europe. The question of Europe’s raison d’être is as acute as ever now more than half a century into the project and is actively discussed for a good reason (eg de Búrca 2013). Answering this question is crucial – not only because such an answer could allow for a better legitimization – if not justification – mehr ...

Ungarn kann doch nicht ganz machen, was es will

Maximilian Steinbeis
Maximilian Steinbeis

Ungarns Verfassungspolitik, den Lesern dieses Blogs wohl vertraut, hat heute ihre erste Quittung aus Straßburg erhalten. Es geht um die Aktion der Orbán-Regierung, Abfindungen für entlassene Beamte (i.e. solche mit sozialistischem Hintergrund) mit einer 98-prozentigen Steuer wieder einzusammeln. Das war eine der ersten Aktionen nach dem Gewinn der Zweidrittelmehrheit durch Orbáns Parteienbündnis im Mai 2010, teils als Notmaßnahme in der Finanzkrise, teils als Racheakt gegen die Parteigänger und Günstlinge der Sozialisten in der Verwaltung (wobei jeder Entlassene betroffen war, egal ob sein Fall anrüchig war oder nicht). Das Verfassungsgericht erklärte diese Aktion für verfassungswidrig, woraufhin Orbán – wir erinnern uns mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

The Crisis of Democracy in Hungary and Romania – Learning from Weimar?

Edward Kanterian
Edward Kanterian

Hungary’s political development under the Orbán government is by now a familiar topic. In April Barroso confirmed the European Commission’s concern that Hungary’s new constitution infringe EU legislation and the rule of law. Indeed, some commentators speak of ‘the corrosion of constitutional democracy’ or even a possible dictatorship in the EU. Romania is another problematic case. Its slide towards authoritarianism has not been (yet) enshrined in a new constitution. But its 2012 political crisis has seen by some as a coup d’état, during which Ponta’s government aimed at removing all checks and balances on its power to impeach President Băsescu. mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

The Hungarian Dilemma from a Pluralist Perspective

Matej Avbelj
Matej Avbelj

The constitutional and political developments in Hungary in the last few years have stirred a lot of controversies and also raised significant academic attention. This blog has provided not only a wonderful forum for an exchange of different views, but it has also produced original and thought-provoking proposals for tackling the Hungarian problem. However, the “reverse Solange” idea, the call for the establishment of a special Copenhagen Commission, for a straightforward supremacy of the Charter and other insightful proposals, all appear to be addressing the Hungarian dilemma from within the constitutional register. This is, of course, a legitimate choice, but mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

Sinn und Unsinn einer Kopenhagen-Kommission

Claudio Franzius
Claudio Franzius

1. Versäumnisse Von den politischen Akteuren wird eingeräumt, dass es ein Fehler war, auf die Erfüllung der Kopenhagen-Kriterien für den Beitritt zu drängen, nach dem erfolgreichen Beitritt aber keine Evaluierungsmechanismen für die Überprüfung der dauerhaften Einhaltung der Kriterien in der Hand zu haben. Das könnte durch die Einrichtung einer Kopenhagen-Kommission, verstanden als watchdog, die auf das Abgleiten in einen kruden Nationalismus à la Ungarn aufmerksam macht, nachgeholt werden. Richtig ist auch, dass wir von der „nuklearen Option“ des Art. 7 EUV nicht zu viel erwarten können. Dass dieses Verfahren keinen Ausschluss aus der Union vorsieht, hat allerdings gute Gründe, die mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

Opening the enforcement of EU fundamental values to European citizens

Marco Dani
Marco Dani

Over the last two years, the adoption, implementation and, more recently, amendment of the new Hungarian Constitution have sparked widespread political and academic discussion motivated by the controversial genesis and contents of that document. Debates on a European scale have revolved around the difficulties encountered by the European Union in contrasting the corrosion of constitutional democracy in one of its member states. Following a consolidated trend in European studies, also in this occasion the blame has been thrown on the EU institutional framework. If there are problems, it seems, this is mainly because the available instruments of enforcement are inadequate. mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

Supremacy of the EU Charter in National Courts in Purely Domestic Cases

András Jakab
András Jakab

The European Union is not just a community based on common interests but is also a community of values. These values are peace, democracy, the rule of law and human rights. If the EU does not want to lose its credibility, it has a duty to defend all of these values to the greatest extent possible, at least within Europe, and especially within the European Union. The different options of how to enforce these values do not exclude, but rather reinforce each other. Most of them depend on political discretion (isolation of the political party concerned within its European party mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

The EU Is More Than A Constraint On Populist Democracy

Jan Komárek
Jan Komárek

Jan-Werner Müller’s eloquent proposal on what the EU should do when one (or more) of its Member States seems to be sliding towards authoritarianism follows the logic of the idea of constrained democracy, put forward in Müller’s recent work on the history of political thought in the 20th century Europe. While I find this vision of the EU appealing (and find Müller’s work on the EU deeply inspiring), I do not think that it is based on a faithful reconstruction of the integration process and the accompanying ‘post-war constitutional settlement’. I fear that Müller’s idealisation, no matter how well it mehr ...

 Schwerpunkt  Ungarn - was tun?

Less Constraint of Popular Democracy, More Empowerment of Citizens

Floris de Witte
Floris de Witte

While I share Müller’s concern about the situation in Hungary and Romania, and agree that a ‘Copenhagen Commission’ might be a good addition to safeguard the basic democratic values in the EU, I differ significantly in the assessment of the nature of the solution. Below, I will first discuss this difference in approach, which focuses less on constraining popular democracy and more on empowering citizens, and then offer some comments on the possible structure and power of the ‘Copenhagen Commission’. Müller’s argument, as in his fascinating book, is one based on the ethics of containment – that it is necessary mehr ...