Beware of Hungarians Bearing Gifts

Kim Lane Scheppele

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Hungary’s foreign minister, János Martonyi, Friday offered to make peace with Europe. He explained in a press conference that the Hungarian government would propose two new constitutional amendments to address European grievances.

But beware of Hungarians bearing gifts. The proposed constitutional amendments do not fix problems that Europe has had with the new Hungarian constitutional order. The new amendments may remove some offending language from the constitution itself, but they won’t actually change the facts on the ground unless the provisions that will be removed from the constitution are also removed from the other laws, too. And, judging from the press conference, that is still in doubt.

Krugman.blog.nytimes