Kim Lane Scheppele, Princeton University
Monday 11 March 2013
The Hungarian Parliament today passed a 15-page amendment to its one-year-old constitution against a storm of protest from both home and abroad. If it is signed by the Hungarian President, János Áder, the “Fourth Amendment” will wipe out more than 20 years of Constitutional Court decisions protecting human rights and it will reverse concessions made to Europe over the last year of difficult bargaining as the Fidesz government has tightened its grip on power.
The amendment’s passage came after a busy week of condemnation. Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, requested that the Hungarian parliament delay enacting the amendment until it could be reviewed by the Commission on Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission). By late last week, José Manual Barroso, the president of the European Commission, had called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to warn that the proposed constitutional amendments could violate the rule of law. And Victoria Nuland, the US State Department spokesperson, expressed the concern of the US government that Hungary’s constitutional amendments “could threaten the principles of institutional independence and checks and balances that are the hallmark of democratic governance.”
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