Kim Lane Scheppele
@KimLaneLaw
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Tracking the rise of legalistic autocracy around the world from Princeton University. And on BlueSky, Threads and Mastodon @KimLaneLaw .
Joined April 2022
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My article explaining how Viktor Orban won the April 2022 election is out in the Journal of Democracy.
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The media need to realize that their own conditions of existence are at stake in the upcoming election. Froomkin sees it, but others do not!
The Washington press corps doesn’t have a freaking clue (I was away. I'm back. I'm depressed.)
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Constitutionalism dies in Israel -- tragic and unnecessary. If the courts are the only check on the power of the unicameral parliamentary majority and the courts are disabled, all that's left is the discretion of the majority and its leader. This is how rights disappear.
#BREAKING
: Netanyahu's coalition passes initial flagship bill of régime change laws by 63-48 majority, granting government control over judicial appointments & denying Supreme Court ability to rule legislation unconstitutional.
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Looks like the US is going to get serious about the threat that an autocracy poses to clubs of democracies:
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Hungary ‘unfit’ to hold EU presidency, warn MEPs –
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A new Chinese-Hungarian agreement allows Chinese police to monitor the Chinese community in Hungary . . . and this from the Hungarian prime minister who claims that sovereignty is the ultimate value? Yet another Hungarian hypocrisy!
Coming back to my previous post about the Sino-Hungarian Security Pact, it has to be clarified that according to the similar deal China made with Serbia, Chinese police won’t have the jurisdiction to arrest Hungarian citizens, or to issue warrants. However… 🧵(1/4)
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This is how Orbán kills off institutions he cannot control. He subjects them to unbearable economic pressure. We've seen this before with media, religious organizations and NGOs. Now Orbán is going after Hungary's most prestigious university.
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Just a friendly reminder that Art 7 TEU would remove Hungary's vote in the Council, among other things. So no more HU blackmail -- if other Member States have the political will to end it. Now that Poland's blocking veto has ended, this is the time!
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Surely an understatement, but still it’s good to see that the Hungarian Statistical office is now publishing some statistics that show what many have long known -- that Hungarians are leaving in droves:
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We can’t say we weren’t warned.
People are missing the larger story behind the "unified Reich" video: It's undeniable that on many fronts, Trump and MAGA are experimenting with how far they can go with overtly fascist/authoritarian modes of politics. It's a test. 1/
New piece from me:
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honored to be quoted in the Knesset on what democracy requires . . .
"חוקתיות היא שיטה פוליטית שבה המנהיגים והציבור גם יחד, מחויבים במסגרת מערכת של מגבלות חוקיות להחזיק בערכי בסיס משותפים שמתעלים מעל לכאן ולעכשיו" - ח"כ
@naamalazimi
הקריאה מתוך הספר "רודנות בחסות החוק", והוסיפה הערה משלה: "לקרוא תיגר על הדמוקרטיה הליברלית ועל החוקתיות"
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Propaganda Hungarian style. These "national consultations" feature "push questions" and are accompanied by echo-chamber media campaigns. The government never reveals the number of respondents or anything about them. Only biased questionnaires generate results like these!
Hungary🇭🇺 is first in the EU to ask citizens their view on sanctions.
❗The results speak for themselves: 97% reject Brussels' misguided sanctions.
Brussels must review its sanctions policy and find a new strategy. We need peace, and not new sanctions!
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The European Commission may be closing in on a deal with Hungary to approve Hungary’s Recovery Plan. Here’s why the deal would be a disaster for the rule of law.
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Remarkable story from the FT about plans to sink Hungary's economy if Viktor Orban keeps blackmailing the EU: via
@ft
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But the electoral systems are different in Poland and Hungary. Hungary has many first-past-the-post districts; Poland has none. The Polish opposition deserves lots of credit for the victory - but so does the electoral system which allows 3 separate opposition parties to run!
I am not a political scientist and should really not be going too much into this, but it seems like not repeating the Hungarian mistake and running as three blocs with distinct platforms was one of key factors behind opposition performance.
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Sargent identifies an important element in the autocrat's playbook - which is to turn all debates about the fate of democracy into mere political disagreement over policy.
Jim Jordan just launched another "investigation" targeting Fani Willis. These efforts are generating a lot of credulous headlines. But here's the bottom line: Trump *will* face a jury of his peers. And there is nothing Jordan can do to stop it. 1/
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All of the democracy rating agencies agree - Hungary is no longer a democracy. Now the European Parliament joins in.
Later this week the European Parliament might declare that Hungary is not a full democracy anymore...
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Yes, indeed! My Law and Society Association presidential address is finally published and open access at
The life and death of constitutions
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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An opposition MP in Hungary lists 40 specific cases that the HU public prosecutor has failed to investigate. And these are just the major ones. Worth listening especially as the EU decides whether HU has done enough to fight corruption before releasing EU funds.
@Hungary
's Chief Public Prosecutor, Péter Polt, has submitted his report on last year's activities of his Office to Parliament, so I had the chance to mention those cases where they weren't that active... 40 cases, only because I ran out of time. 1/7🧵
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Doesn't the Pope know that Catholicism has been weaponized in Hungary for Orban's own benefit?
VATICAN
Pope Francis has criticised the European Union for how it deals with Hungary, saying that it "seems to want to standardize everything, which should respect Hungarian uniqueness."
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Illuminating deep dive into Russian/Hungarian/Ukrainian relations by two of Hungary’s best investigative journalists
@panyiszabolcs
and
@AndrasSzab
| Direkt36
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Orbánomics.
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For those who want to read in English, here’s the astonishingly terrible new
Hungarian law designed to crush civil society and opposition parties before the European Parliament elections.
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The Council is now wavering about whether it will approve the Commission's recommendation to cut funds to Hungary. If it refuses the Commission's proposal, it would be caving in to extortion. 🧵
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Just a reminder: Orban 'privatized' most of Hungary's public universities by 'donating' them to newly created foundations run by his cronies who have been imposing ideological tests on faculty while plundering university assets for their own private gain. And this is a model?
🚨CBS News: Hungary’s Viktor Orbán seized control of universities rewrote the Constitution and neutered the courts.
Is that what you're advocating for in the US?
JD Vance: I think Orbán made smart decisions that we could learn from in the US.
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Even if - or perhaps especially if - you don't think you want to listen to Tucker Carlson interviewing Viktor Orban, you should listen to this. It's the clearest explanation in English of Orban's view of the world. It's impossible to understand Hungary without this.
Ep. 20 Hungary shares a border with Ukraine. We traveled to Budapest to speak with the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
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Important analysis of what's sustaining the worrisome attacks on democracy in India:
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Hungary has lived under a "migration emergency" since 2015. Then came the Covid emergency and now the war emergency, both of which allow Orban to govern by decree without limits. No other European country, faced with the same stresses, has used emergency government like this.
Government extends state of danger due to mass migration crisis by another six months as illegal migration continues to threaten Hungary, with more than 270,000 illegal attempts apprehended last year.
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Maybe US conservatives are starting to realize that Orban is not really a conservative - but is instead an autocrat and anti-business too?
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No wonder Hungarian government supporters defend the Russian invasion of Ukraine -- they are looking for an excuse to annex Transylvania to restore "Greater Hungary"!
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in defense of an independent judiciary!
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This is the most important article on the EU in recent memory. Must read!
My article w/
@rdanielkelemen
on the politics of forbearance in the EU is now live
@World_Pol
! As
@EU_Commission
toys w/ unfreezing € to Hungary to cajole it to support aid to Ukraine, we explain when, how & why this dynamic arose in the first place:
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After the Polish opposition victory, here is how Viktor Orbán celebrates.
❗️
#Hungarian
PM
#Orban
held bilateral talks with
#Russian
President
#Putin
in Beijing.
Let me quote his press secretary: Orbán "stressed the importance of peace", saying it was crucial for the entire continent, that „the flood of refugees, sanctions and fighting should end”.
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Delighted that reporter Laura Barron-Lopez and producer Saher Khan did such a wonderful job on the PBS NewsHour last night showing how Orban's playbook is being followed by US Republicans. (And yes, I'm interviewed in the process.)
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Finally, the EU institutions are realizing that Art 7(2) and (3) TEU are precisely what they need to sideline Orban, but once again, political will is weak:
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Dark day in Hungary when the government bars all foreign money (including from other EU member states) to any organization attempting to influence the will of voters (!) just in time for the European and local government elections next year. A good summary of the law follows.
🇭🇺 The Hungarian Parliament has passed the Sovereignty Protection Act and the associated constitutional amendment. The act, supported by Fidesz, KDNP, and Mi Hazánk, establishes the Sovereignty Protection Office from February. This autonomous administrative body will perform
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After a decade of German appeasement under Merkel, German lawmakers from the three parties now in government push for a hard line on Hungary over rule-of-law concerns
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excellent deep dive thread on what is happening inside the Texas attorney general's office . . .
For a long time, I’ve been curious how TX AG Ken Paxton’s legal
troubles — his impeachment, his securities fraud case, the whistleblower case against him — might have affected staffing at the state agency.
So I made a spreadsheet of resignations in 2023. One unit stood out. 🧵
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Crucial first read of the new Hungarian sovereignty law to rig next year’s European Parliament elections and the Hungarian municipal elections. Since EU citizens can vote in both, the Commission should immediately challenge the law and ask for interim measures at the ECJ.
In the night of November 22, the
#Fidesz
party caucus submitted the draft
#SovereigntyProtection
bill to the
#Hungarian
parliament.
Find below my snap analysis about this new intimidation measure to deter civic activism and dissent of the
#Orb
án regime.
The language of the draft
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On a world full of such little good news, there is a ray of hope.
Exit poll, Poland:
OPPOSITION LIKELY TO FORM NEW GOVERNMENT
PiS 36,8% - 200 seats
PO 31,6% - 163
Trzecia Droga 13% - 55
Lewica 8,6% - 30
Konfederacja 6,2% - 12
(via TVN24, Ipsos)
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@ratemyskyperoom
Indeed. It's a cast iron penguin. And only one of many penguins in this house!
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@DrJSchwedler
APSA can prevent this problem in the future by negotiating pro-labor clauses into annual meeting hotel contracts so that, if there is a strike, APSA can cancel the event without penalty. APSA could then strengthen labor's hand in contract talks and also guard APSA's solvency.
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Just signed on to Mastodon
@kimlanelaw
@mastodon
.online though I'll also stick around here too for now. If those who believe in the rule of law leave the Twittersphere, only those who don't will dominate it. But we should be vigilant against hate and autocracy while we're here.
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Orbán is the role model for the Netanyahu government and a mass demonstration refuses the precedent.
More live pictures from the over 100,000 demo against the populist constitutional coup- in Instagram stories
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Read an extraordinarily perceptive account of Orban's vision for Europe -- it's more serious than most analysts have thought:
@UnHerd
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The Hungarian plan to conquer Brussels is now openly admitted. Don't forget that Hungary will hold the rotating presidency of the Council starting next June just when the EP elections will open up all of the top EU positions at once. Where is militant democracy at EU level?
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Judicial independence, Hungarian style - firing a judge who referred a case to the European Court of Justice. She has no way to contest the decision in Hungary, so she is going to Strasbourg. .
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Gábor Mészáros and I have assessed Hungary’s anti corruption program, put in place to get EU money. The short answer: The program is all smoke and mirrors.
Trusting Hungary with Billions of Euros – Verfassungsblog
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Today, the European Commission recommended recommend €7.5 billion in cuts to Hungary’s Cohesion Funds plus an additional freeze of €5.8 billion from Hungary's 2022 allocation under the Recovery Fund: . 🧵
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important thread on where the US is as MAGA manufactures pretexts in plain sight . . .
Trump is nakedly threatening to weaponize law enforcement against Democrats if he wins in 2024. Others on the right are demanding this weaponization against the left.
I think the response of the other GOP candidates to all this is deeply alarming. 1/
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This is why Hungarian Nobel laureates typically win their prizes as expats. And it tells you everything about the Orbán government.
1/ 🤐 In today's Hungary, it seems that even Nobel Prize winners are subjected to censorship if they express concerns about the future of education. Read the whole story below:
Ferenc Krausz, a Hungarian scientist residing in Germany, was honored with a Nobel Prize in physics.
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I wonder if Trump still thinks Orbán is president of Turkey?
It was a pleasure to visit President
@realDonaldTrump
today. We need leaders in the world who are respected and can bring peace. He is one of them! Come back and bring us peace, Mr. President!
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Important piece by MEP Katalin Cseh on the consequences of the EU cave-in to Orban:
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The next step in Hungarian autocracy — ‘sovereignty defense’.
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Let's see -- scheduling the NATO vote for the day after the Council was to vote on funds (now delayed); voting for global min tax until funding cuts proposed, then opposing it; voting for sanctions until fund cuts were seriously on the table . Nope, nothing to do with funds.
Let's get something straight: HU does not tie the question of EU funds to other issues. We hold principled views on SWE-FIN NATO membership (we support it), on global minimum tax (we're against it) and on sanctions (we're against them). All of this has nothing to do w/ EU funds.
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Fellowships for legal scholars and/or practitioners for next year at Princeton -- here's how to apply!
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The HU govt has sent its response to the EU Commission - and now the EU Commission has one month to consider HU's proposals before recommending (or not) for HU's funds to be cut. If the HU justice minister is so proud of the proposals HU has made, how about making them public?
The Hungarian Government has sent its reply to the
@EU_Commission
on
#RuleOfLaw
conditionality, which was preceded by intensive consultations. In just one month, we held 10 video conferences & numerous meetings while more than 100 draft measures have been circulated & discussed.
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Here is a must-read report on how the Hungarian Supreme Court is being packed with government-friendly judges. Autocratic legalism in action.
Tribunal Established by Sleight of Hand - Hungarian Helsinki Committee
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An excellent essay from a judge with experience on both the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the European Court of Justice about how to restore the rule of law in Poland. Click on this link:
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a good article on the state of academic freedom in Hungary -- which is dire:
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Here's my latest on the ECJ's decision telling the Hungarian government that it may not punish (or threaten to punish) judges who send references to the Court of Justice - and that it may not direct its own national courts to decide those questions instead.
From the August issue:
@KimLaneLaw
(
@PU_LAPA
) annotates Case C-564/19, Criminal proceedings against IS: "The law requires translation: The Hungarian preliminary reference on preliminary references: IS", on
#Hungary
and the
#ruleoflaw
.
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Timing is impeccable. Just when Orbán is trying to convince the EU that there is no corruption in Hungary.
Budapest’s iconic Gellért Hotel has a new owner - Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz:
Of course, the process was helped by the Orbán gov’t through loans by a state-owned bank, as
@direkt36
’s
@AndrasSzab
previously reported:
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Excellent piece written from the inside of Orban's propaganda center, explaining how it works to produce disinformation in multiple languages:
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Congrats to Daniel and his amazing team and parliamentary colleagues for keeping the pressure on and generating results!!
When I started my mandate in the 🇪🇺Parliament 3.5 years ago, the undertaking was considered hopeless by many. Someone like Orban was unmanageable. The resistance in the Council was too big, Orban too powerful with his veto, and von der Leyen too unwilling to take action. /1
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Finland and Sweden damage Hungary by showing how real democracies operate . . .
BREAKING: President of Hungarian Parliament - "The Finns and Swedes cause significant damage to our national interests"
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Now we know what patriotism in HU looks like! Men wear military uniforms from the 1930s (see ) and the women dress their part from the Handmaid's Tale!
🇭🇺Listen to the stunning grand aria "My homeland, my homeland" from Bánk Bán!
Performed at the commemoration of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution by Ninh Long, a
#Vietnamese
-born opera singer who received
#Hungarian
citizenship in 2018.
This is what patriotism looks like!
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Here’s how corruption works in Hungary, moving money into Orbán’s pockets without leaving traces. Amazing investigative reporting!!!!
How money from a Hungarian "pro-government businessman" is secretly flowing to Viktor Orbán's family using a method very similar to money laundering:
@G7gazdasag
has revealed a scheme were so-called 'preferred shares', front companies and stooges are used to hide the money flow.
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Here's my latest on what US Republicans see in Viktor Orbán -- with special attention to rigging election rules:
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What happens to EU funds when they get to Hungary? About 1/3 disappears into the hands of the inner circle of Orbán oligarchs.
In the previous EU budget cycle, Hungary received roughly €30 billion, about one third of which could have fallen into the wrong hands,
@Transparency_HU
's
@jozsef_martin
told
@RFERL
Hungary.
That's €10 billion affected by corruption, or simply stolen, under the Orbán regime.
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Gábor Mészáros and I have just posted a detailed analysis of Orbán's new "Integrity Authority." We show it is neither independent nor powerful enough to stop corruption . . See 🧵
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This tells you everything about Hungarian state honors these days:
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Glad that the HU government has claimed Jamie Lee Curtis as Hungarian. What they don't mention is that JLC is presently restoring a synagogue in her family's hometown where almost all of the Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust: .
Congratulations to
@jamieleecurtis
on her
#Oscar
win! 👏
We're proud to see a talented actor who cherishes her Hungarian🇭🇺 roots join the ranks of
#AcademyAward
winners.
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more evidence that the Orban model is spreading in Trump circles . . . Hungary now has the lowest ranking for academic freedom in Europe:
My God. Senator Vance approves of Orban’s approach to gov’t domination of universities. The GOP leadership does not want freedom of speech, thought, or religion. The GOP leadership wants white Christian supremacy. This is not a drill.
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Wow. Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain. . What a treasure!
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This is a huge deal - the answer to the EU's problems with Orban hiding in plain sight. Under Art 7(2) TEU, unanimous member states can remove Hungary's vote in the Council, among other things. Now that Poland's fellow-traveler veto is gone, is the political will there?
Launched a historic petition, which, if successful, will allow Mr Orban to be deprived of the right to vote in the Council.
This is decisively different from anything we have done so far regarding HU – the procedure foreseen in Article 7(2) TEU has never been initiated. 1/3
863
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You’re not a democracy when you win elections by cheating. For how HU cheats, see
Message of Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó to the European Parliament: Questioning the performance of our democracy is an insult towards the Hungarians, who elected this government 4 times already.
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Here's what happens when city government is different from national government in Hungary!
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first, they eliminate the reasonableness standard - now they are going to change the election law. Pure autocratic playbook!
הצעת החוק הזו מצטרפת להצעת חוק נוספת שכבר הוגשה על-ידי יו"ר הקואליציה, ורוטמן עצמו אמר בראיון לפני כמה חודשים שפסילה גורפת של המפלגות הערביות היא המטרה הבאה שלו. יש למהלכים האלה מטרה אחת ויחידה: מתן ניצחון אוטומטי לקואליציית ההפיכה בבחירות. ראו סעיף 8 - הונגריה לפי הספר.
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The Israeli law professors forum reminds everyone that a delay is not the end of the offending legislation. Therefore, everyone must keep fighting!
אין משמעות להצהרה פוליטית על עצירת החקיקה - משפטית הם יכולים לחדש מייד אחרי. לא ליפול לשום שקר. לא להתפתות למאמצים שלהם לסגור. אין שום אמון במילים. רק מעשים מחייבים ובלתי הפיכים.
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Here is Viktor Orbán's approach to the rule of law -- making every requirement so detailed that the forest is lost in the trees. He loves checklists because they can always be gamed. But he hates general principles because he violates them all.
❗️
@PM_ViktorOrban
: The "rule of law" procedure is in fact disintegrating the whole European Union.
It is a serious nail in the coffin of the EU that should be pulled out as soon as possible!
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The far right party in the Hungarian parliament just installed in the parliament building a bust of Hungary’s interwar and WWII leader who led Hungary into an alliance with Hitler.
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Academic freedom is central to democracy. Here's the case:
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He’s right. The commission confused a law with reality. The Hungarian judicial
reform changed nothing substantial on the ground. And the commission fell for it.
Catastrophic decision! The Commission has just decided to let Hungary start claiming up to 10,2 billion euros of EU funds.
The timing could not have been worse - now it looks like Orban has successfully blackmailed the rest of the union. 1/6
@EPPGroup
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Daniel Freund and the Parliament kept the pressure on the Commission all these years. So a victory lap is well deserved. But wait! There’s more! Yesterday the Commission announced HU will get NO money from Cohesion Funds because of pervasive rights violations!
When I started my mandate in the 🇪🇺Parliament 3.5 years ago, the undertaking was considered hopeless by many. Someone like Orban was unmanageable. The resistance in the Council was too big, Orban too powerful with his veto, and von der Leyen too unwilling to take action. /1
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Important judgment that paves the way for a new Polish government to dismantle this kangaroo court.
Judgment Walesa v. Poland - Poland must take appropriate measures to restore compliance with the European Convention
#ECHR
#CEDH
#ECHRpress
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Big ROL news from Poland. Properly appointed judges on the Supreme Court are refusing to sit on panels with political judges. The ECtHR ruled that judgments of the Constitutional tribunal cannot be enforced if political judges are involved, so the SupCt anticipates it is next.
🇵🇱⚖️Monday afternoon Polish rule of law earthquake - 30 (thirty) "old" Supreme Court judges have issued a statement saying that they refuse to sit on court panels with "new" judges. 1/
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Wow. The Hungarian government has really jumped the shark on this one. And this is just when the EU gives HU money for its continuing violation of EU law?
The future leader of the Hungarian “Sovereignity Protection Authority” said they would also investigate if the EU institutions try to overstep their authority.
☝️FYI: There is only one authority to determine this, called the Court of Justice of the European Union
@EUCourtPress
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Here’s our latest deep dive into the Hungarian anti-corruption reforms. What the HU government appears to concede on the surface is retracted in the details. No sincere cooperation here!
"The days in which the Hungarian government can say “trust us” and be allowed to divert EU funds to crony companies should end now"
Part II of KIM SCHEPPELE and GÁBOR MÉSZAROS piece on 🇭🇺"anti-corruption" plans: the so-called "anti-corruption task force"
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If you feel this way, leave the EU! When HU joined, it promised to follow EU law. That’s what’s being enforced here.
This is the kind of foreign political meddling our Sovereignty Protection Act is meant to counter
🖋 In the
@EU_Commission
’s latest infringement procedure against Hungary, Brussels argues that our tightened Sovereignty Protection Act is meant to “silence government opposition.”
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The best analysis of this week's debacle at the EUCO meeting and the Commission's caving in to Hungarian blackmail . . .
"The EU Betrays Ukraine and the Rule of Law – and We Will Live to Regret It"
TOMMASO PAVONE (
@Tom_Pavone
) on a momentous week in the history of the EU - and why selling one’s soul is seldom a choice that gets better with age.
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Now the fun begins. We can expect sham reforms regarding judicial independence and the only question is whether the Commission will be fooled by them.
We had a frank discussion with
@JuditVarga_EU
, Minister of
#Justice
of Hungary.
On the conditionality mechanism, we aim to achieve the ultimate objective that the 🇪🇺 budget is no longer at risk; this needs to be achieved through the adequate reforms and changes in practice in 🇭🇺.
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Important thread explaining the significance of today’s European Parliament overwhelming vote that Hungary is no longer a democracy.
@Europarl_EN
formally acknowledges that Hungary is no longer a democracy- making it the first EU institution to do so. This is a huge deal with potentially explosive implications. Quick 🧵
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If Orban thinks that a state is raped when an organization that it voluntarily joined and could leave at any time makes a democratic decision in which HU is outvoted, imagine what he thinks of national elections that he might lose. That is why HU elections are rigged.
The Hungarian Prime Minister said that Poland and Hungary were "legally raped" by the EU migration package being adopted in spite of the two countries' vote against it.
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If anyone wonders why some expats with fell in love with Budapest in the 1990s and are still haunted by it, this surprisingly moving account captures the spirit of the city and its people - also with beautiful pictures.
Reckoning With Memories of Budapest
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once upon a time . . .
In 2008 I urged Central-European and Baltic countries to unite against Russian imperialism and advocated for Ukraine’s and Georgia’s NATO admission. What went wrong?
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Database exposes Hungarian oligarchs hiding huge fortunes
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Sorry that friends will be hit by this, but it's one more sign of how the HU govt behaves badly. The HU govt gave citizenship to nearly 1 million people over the borders so that those votes could be manipulated at election time.
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If HU were a real democracy, Orbán would be in trouble with the highest inflation in the EU.
Although only marginally, but the rate of inflation in Hungary fell again in March. Compared to the same time a year ago, food prices were 42.6% higher.
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