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bne December 2020 Central Europe I 39
most people are strongly in favour of EU membership.
For the Polish government, the battle over money also means opening
a new political front in addition to the widely criticised response to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and infuriating Polish women over the near- total ban on abortion, dictated by the country’s Catholic circles.
Spokesman for the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the PM had repeatedly warned against tieing the EU’s budget and the recovery package to conditions where “the nature of the alleged law violation
is not precisely defined, leading to politically motivated financial sanctions by employing double standards”.
Such measures would threaten the trust between member states as well as Hungary’s interests, Orban wrote in the letter addressed to EU leaders.
Orban’s Polish peer Mateusz Morawiecki expressed a similar sentiment.
"Poland cannot accept the mechanism [of linking EU funding to the rule of law] which would lead to the primacy of political and arbitrary criteria over
a substantive assessment," Morawiecki wrote on Facebook about his objections, which, like Orban, he also detailed in
a letter sent to top EU decision-makers and institutions.
Both countries’ justice ministers went even further than their PMs. Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said linking the budget and the recovery fund to rule of law was "political blackmailing".
A country of 10mn people, Hungary’s total funding during the next EU budget cycle could come to around €61bn, which is 43% of the country's annual GDP over the next seven years.
Poland, where 38mn people live, stands to be the biggest beneficiary of the EU funds, expecting over €170bn in 2021- 2027 or around a third of the GDP in that period.
Hungarian government submits controversial constitutional amendments after parliament approves state of emergency rules
Tamas Szilagyi in Budapest
Hungary’s opposition parties have called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban
to withdraw a set of proposals to amend the constitution and election
rules submitted to the parliament on November 10, just after lawmakers overwhelmingly supported extending the state of emergency and new curfew restrictions. There will be no obstacles to passing legislation as the ruling conservative-nationalist Fidesz party holds a supermajority.
One of the constitutional amendments would ban adoption by same-sex couples. The proposed amendment would specify that "the mother is
a woman, the father is a man" and permit only married couples to adopt children.
Same-sex marriage is illegal in Hungary, but adoption has been possible if one partner applies on their own. Under the latest proposed amendment, single people could only adopt with special permission from the minister in charge of family affairs.
The proposal seeks to strengthen protections of families and children, ensuring that all children are brought up according to Christian values appropriate to their gender of birth, Justice Minister Judit Varga said.
LGBTQ groups say the legislation severely limits legal rights and goes against basic international and European human rights. It was deliberately drafted at a time when mass protests are not allowed, they added.
At the end of March the parliament approved legislation that gave state of emergency powers to Orban without a time limit. One of the first decisions of the government then was to issue a decree that made it impossible for transgender people to legally change their gender.
Amending election rules 17 months before elections
Another controversial proposed amendment involves election related-bills that opposition parties say will be unfavourable for them.
"A party may set up a party list only if it has nominated candidates in at least fifty single-member constituencies located in at least nine counties and the capital," according to the draft, submitted by deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen. This would almost double the minimum number from the original 27.
The government said it wanted to crack down on bogus parties, which pop up just before elections to cash in on lucrative campaign subsidies. Surprisingly many of them manage to field candidates in lots of constituencies or even field a national list.
Analysts point out that they are not just formed to siphon campaign money, but they actively help Hungary's illiberal strongman as fake parties tend
to soak up many discontented voters and take votes away from legitimate opposition parties.
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