BUDAPEST – Hungary’s Fidesz party has pushed a new constitution through parliament, bypassing an opposition boycott over complaints that the move did not have consensus support and would cement Fidesz’s power beyond the end of its term.
Centre-right Fidesz, which swept to power with a two-thirds parliamentary majority in 2010, has overhauled the constitution and says this will complete a democratisation process started in 1989, when Hungary’s communist regime collapsed.
Only the ruling Fidesz-KDNP bloc, with 262 votes, approved the constitution, while 44 deputies voted against and one abstained. The Socialists and green liberal LMP stayed away from the vote. The far-right Jobbik party voted against the law.
Since taking office, Fidesz has imposed a severe bank tax, taken over private pension assets and has pursued a controversial media law which angered the European Union.
Thousands of people protested on Friday against the new constitution, which human rights and civil groups said would weaken democratic checks and balances when it came into force at the beginning of 2012.
The law curbs the powers of the supreme court in budget and tax matters and allows the president to dissolve parliament if a budget is not approved by April.
“As for democratic checks and balances, this law is a serious step back. For example, the powers of the constitutional court – which has been the most important counterweight of the government – are curtailed,” said Peter Kreko at think tank Political Capital.
“In economic matters the picture is ambivalent but we can mention positive elements such as the debt ceiling.”
Critics, however, say the governing party should have consulted far more widely when rewriting Hungarys basic law. The Venice Commission, the EU’s constitutional law advisory body, has questioned the transparency of the process.
Fidesz has said that with its huge parliamentary majority, it can decide what priorities to articulate because voters have authorised it to enact changes.
Analysts say a key problem is that the new constitution would allow Fidesz appointees to control key public institutions well beyond the end of its governmental term.
According to a survey by Median last week, 57 per cent of Hungarians believed the new constitution would need to be confirmed by a referendum, while only 29 percent said it was sufficient for a two-thirds parliament majority to approve it. – (Reuters)