Justice, Media, Education … Faced with a united opposition, the National Prime Minister locks the main institutions of the country.
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In October, the President of the Hungarian Media Council has suddenly resigned. After almost nine years at the head of this institution where it has faithfully applied the media policy policy desired by the Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Monika Karas has justified his departure by “looking for new professional challenges”. One of its subsequent decisions was the withdrawal of the Klubradio license, the last critical radio antenna in this Central European country. A few days after his resignation, his appointment was taught to the vice-presidency of the Court of Auditors.
A simple promotion? In Hungary, the opposition and civil society doubt. The mandate of M me karas had to be completed in the summer of 2022, just after the spring legislative elections, which are offered to be the tightened in twelve years for the far-right leader – For the first time, he will have to face a united opposition. However, “by resigning, Monika Karas allowed the current government party to appoint a president for nine additional years,” denounced the Association of Hungarian journalists.
It was indeed replaced by Andras Koltay, an academic just as affidered in power. Gergely Gulyas, Chief of Staff by M. Orban, replied that it was a simple coincidence: “In constitutional democracies, the mandates have a beginning and an end, and they do not necessarily coincide with parliamentary cycles . “But Peter Marki-Zay, the candidate designated on 17 October by the opposition to confront Mr. Orban, sees a maneuver, especially since the new chairman of the Board will only be revocable to a two-thirds majority of Parliament. “If we win the elections, we can not restore the freedom of the press by giving up, for example, frequencies”, he denounces, aware that the two-thirds majority will be unattainable.
Strong way
This resignation is the manifestation of a broader problem for the Hungarian opposition. The threshold of two-thirds not only allows to revoke or appoint most public leaders, but also to change the Constitution. Since the 2018 vote, and uses it regularly for its contested reforms. Recently, it has, for example, modified the rules for the appointment of the Attorney General or placed almost all the universities of the country in legally out of control of the government, but all led by near-known relatives.
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