Hungary: The devil in the details
There has been a barrage of English-language communications from the government since this case put Hungary back on the news radar. The official line on the Fourth Amendment to Hungary’s new Constitution is that criticism over its latest constitutional amendment, particularly concerns voiced abroad, are the result of “misunderstandings”, as Foreign Minister János Martonyi wrote to all 26 of his EU counterparts last week.
The trouble for the opponents of the government’s lawmaking practice – and there are many who hold the entire Fundamental Law in question because it was drafted unilaterally by Fidesz appointees and ratified solely by Fidesz lawmakers – is that the Commission and the Council of Europe can act only on specific technical points.
