COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary

The COVID-19 pandemic occurs in Hungary since March 2020 as part of the global COVID-19 pandemic , which took place in December 2019 in China originated. The COVID-19 pandemic affects the novel disease COVID-19 . This is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the Coronaviridae group and belongs to the group of respiratory diseases . From March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the outbreak of the novel coronavirus as a global pandemic .

course

On March 4, 2020, the first positive COVID-19 cases in Hungary were announced. On March 15, 2020, the first death from COVID-19 was confirmed in Hungary. As of March 18, 2020, the virus has been detected in all parts of the country.

Legal action

The Hungarian government under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared a state of emergency on March 11, 2020, which gave the government significantly expanded rights. This status may last a maximum of 15 days in Hungary, after which it must be confirmed by parliament . Gatherings with more than 100 participants were banned and sporting events that could attract more than 500 spectators had to take place behind closed doors. On March 16, the measures were expanded by banning all events and severely restricting the opening times of cafes and restaurants. People without Hungarian citizenship were also banned from entering the country. On June 16, 2020, parliament decided to end the state of emergency.

Law of March 30th

On March 20, 2020, the Hungarian Minister of Justice, Judit Varga , submitted a law to the Hungarian parliament, which gives the government extensive special rights to fight the pandemic and makes the national emergency indefinitely. It also includes changes to criminal law that include long prison terms for spreading misinformation about the pandemic or violating quarantine rules, and suspends all elections except the general election, which would normally take place next time in 2022. The government asked the opposition to approve the law in order to enable an adequate fight against the virus as soon as possible. The opposition parties were open to the proposed law, but only wanted to approve it if the special rights were limited to ninety days, otherwise they feared indefinite, dictatorial rule and the elimination of the free press. The government rejected a time limit for the law as making no sense, as it was not foreseeable how long the pandemic would last. The parliamentary group leader of the ruling Fidesz party , Máté Kocsis , said that if necessary, the law would be passed without the opposition.

In an opinion piece on the government-critical Internet platform Index , the State Secretary of the State Chancellery Balász Orbán explained in detail the government's justification for the law. Among other things, he argued that the COVID-19 pandemic was an exceptional situation that the country does not under its usual set of rules could handle. Limiting the measures is a bad idea, as the spread of the disease may soon make Parliament unable to take decisions. The head of the State Chancellery, Gergely Gulyás , accused sections of the opposition of acting irresponsibly and "cheering on the virus".

Meanwhile, the opposition feared that the anti-false news regulations could endanger their friendly press, as the government has repeatedly accused them of spreading false news, and called for joint talks on the law between all seven factions. Máté Kocsis signaled a concession here, since the spread of panic does not directly endanger human lives. A number of civil rights organizations, namely Amnesty International Hungary , the Eötvos Károly Institute, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Rights Union , criticized the government's proposal as unconstitutional in a joint statement on March 22 and demanded compliance with the rule of law as well a time limit for the measures.

On March 23, the government's attempt to pass the law in an accelerated process failed because the four-fifths majority required to circumvent the parliamentary rules was not achieved. 137 MPs voted for the faster procedure, including those of the coalition of Fidesz and KDNP as well as the representatives of the German minority and four non-attached MPs from the nationalist Unser Heimatland movement . 52 MPs from the remaining parties voted against. The government then submitted a motion to treat the law with particular urgency, which means that a vote can be taken after just six days. This required only a two-thirds majority and was accepted with 152 to 31 votes; he was also supported by the opposition Jobbik party .

On March 30, 2020, the Hungarian Parliament voted with a large majority of 137 to 53 votes in favor of Law No. XII / 2020 on protection against the coronavirus , which was submitted by the government on March 20, giving the necessary two-thirds majority. On the same day it was signed by Hungary's President János Áder . The government is thus authorized to take measures to combat the pandemic by decree, i. H. without the involvement of Parliament. However, the parliament retains its legislative competence and is in a position to take back the rights of the government at any time by declaring the state of emergency over. In addition, the government is obliged to inform the speaker of parliament and the leaders of the political groups about measures.

Reactions

Within Hungary

politics

Government spokespersons said the government has no intention of restricting press freedom. After the law was signed, President Áder issued a statement defending the measures. He said the government's mandate is only to fight the virus and is easily revocable, which is why it is in line with the constitution and international law. He also called on the parties not to use the time of the crisis for political profiling.

The chairman of the opposition Jobbik party, Péter Jakab , criticized the measure and spoke of the fact that in Hungary the “democracy is being quarantined”. He also referred to the passing of the law as "Viktor Orbán's coronation".

Press

The head of the Fidesz-affiliated forum for civil cooperation, Lászlo Csizmadia, accused left EU elites and the Hungarian opposition of a coordinated attack against Viktor Orbán in the conservative newspaper Magyar Hírlap . They are unwilling to fight the coronavirus effectively themselves, and therefore tried to sabotage Orbán without respecting the will of the majority population. The behavior of the opposition represents treason . Tamás Fricz, a political scientist and journalist for the pro-government Magyar Nemzet, sees the situation similarly . He suspects the opposition to the government law was orchestrated by a network of George Soros- funded non-governmental organizations and left, liberal and EPP MPs in the European Parliament . The European criticism of Hungary is comparable to the Trianon peace treaty , which sealed the secessions from the Kingdom of Hungary during the First World War , as in both cases a coalition of European politicians, global media and investors influenced by Freemasons conspired against Hungary, to take advantage of the land. Fricz described the attempt to defend itself against the attacks as pointless and demanded that Hungary should look for new geopolitical allies.

John O'Sullivan, president of the Danube Institute, a right-wing Hungarian think tank , expressed mixed feelings about the law in an opinion piece in the conservative National Review . While he was in favor of the government's new rights as the extraordinary situation required them, he believed that the penalties for spreading false information and disregarding the quarantine were going too far. In terms of constitutional law, the law was not objectionable, as the constitutional court and the possibility of withdrawing special rights provided sufficient protective mechanisms; therefore the term “end of democracy” is also wrong. However, O'Sullivan considers the lack of a time limit to be a blatant mistake, as it would have made the government much more controllable and cooled the political climate. The calls of “the first dictatorship of the European Union” would never have happened with a time limit; so they could be dangerous for Orbán's government. The left commentator János Kárpáti suspected in the weekly newspaper 168 Óra that the population did not trust the government not to abuse their new powers and said that this belief was also justified. He thinks that the end of the state of emergency will be decided politically and not scientifically. Kárpáti called the government's argument against a time limit that the parliament might no longer have a quorum as unrealistic. He also called on the entire political spectrum to cooperate.

Péter Németh sharply criticized the law in the social democratic newspaper Népszava . He accused the government of dismissing any criticism of it as “liberal mainstream” and accusing the European Union of preventing Hungary from taking meaningful measures against the epidemic in order to stir up rejection of the EU in the population and to prepare for Hungary to leave the union of states. He also criticized Orbán's Fidesz party for being unwilling followers without any impulses of their own. János Széky sees the government's actions as the final step towards the extermination of Hungarian democracy, as he wrote in Élet és Irodalom . The panic surrounding the corona virus came in very handy for Orbán to achieve this goal. The satirical weekly Magyar Narancs published an editorial portraying Viktor Orbán as a megalomaniac, aggressive child who is using the epidemic to portray himself as the savior of the nation as he continues to isolate himself in the EU. The newspaper suggested that if the death toll were low, Orbán would portray himself as a hero to win the next election and otherwise blame the opposition for not immediately allowing his extended rights. No protests are to be expected from the Hungarian population, as they are “hypnotized” and suffer from “ Stockholm Syndrome ”.

International

Various EU member states also criticized the “Enabling Act” for Orban, who in the past had characterized himself as a representative of an “ illiberal democracy ”. Individual politicians called for Hungary to be placed in "political quarantine" and Orbán's Fidesz to be excluded from the European People's Party (EPP). The party's membership has already been suspended. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned the member states of disproportionate crisis measures and announced that the Commission would closely monitor the legislation of the countries without explicitly mentioning Hungary.

On April 2, 2020, 13 member parties of the European People's Party, including the New Democracy from Greece and the National Collection Party from Finland , signed a letter to EPP President Donald Tusk and EPP Group Chairman Manfred Weber , in which the expulsion of Fidesz from the party and Group was called for. The Polish Citizens' Platform also joined this on April 7th . Orbán then turned to some EPP party leaders with a request not to allow Fidesz to be expelled. In a letter to the CDU chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer , for example, he asked "to convince Tusk [...] not to sow the seeds of division within our political family any longer".

The Dutch Foreign Ministry published a joint statement by Belgium , Bulgaria , Cyprus , Denmark , Estonia , Finland, France , Germany , Greece, Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Portugal , Romania , Spain and Sweden on April 1st , who expressed concern about the threat to democracy and the rule of law from excessive emergency measures, but did not address Hungary explicitly. Hungary itself joined the declaration on April 2, 2020. Former President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and other voices called for the EU to stop financing Hungary because the state is undermining democracy. Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn called for Hungary to be excluded from EU Councils of Ministers.

Other laws

On March 31, Zsolt Semjén , the deputy prime minister of Hungary and chairman of Orbán's coalition partner KDNP, submitted a comprehensive legislative package that, among other things, aims to facilitate the response to the coronavirus by restricting the rights of mayors. In addition, the details of a planned railway line between Budapest and Belgrade are to be classified. Universities' rights to self-determination are also to be reduced with the law, which will not be passed through the new forces of the government, and a legal change of gender after birth should be made impossible. The latter change in particular has been criticized as setting the wrong priorities at the time of the pandemic.

The national opposition and a large number of local politicians, including those from Fidesz, sharply criticized the plans to become mayors. The deputy leader of the Democratic coalition , Gergely Arató , said the plans would ignore the democratic choice of the citizens of the cities. Péter Márki ‐ Zay , the non-party mayor of Hódmezővásárhely , criticized the law “contradicting all logic” and reducing the effectiveness of the measures against the virus. Budapest's PM Mayor Gergely Karácsony also called the project pointless. The government then withdrew the plans. State Chancellor Gulyás declared that the government wanted "the greatest possible cohesion across party lines" and had therefore distanced itself from the plan.

statistics

The number of cases developed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary as follows:

Infections

Confirmed infections (cumulative) in Hungary
according to WHO data

Confirmed infections (cumulative) in Hungary over the course of the week
according to WHO data

New infections in Hungary
according to WHO data

Deaths

Confirmed deaths (cumulative) in Hungary
according to WHO data

Confirmed deaths (cumulative) in Hungary over the course of the week
according to WHO data

Confirmed deaths (daily) in Hungary
according to WHO data

Testing

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Cases reported to WHO by national authorities are listed here. Since the situation is very dynamic, there may be discrepancies or delays between the cases of the WHO and the data of national authorities as well as the information provided by other bodies, such as the Johns Hopkins University (CSSE).

See also

• List of epidemics and pandemics
• List of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic

Web links

Commons : COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Corona monitor (data on the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, courtesy of Átló, Hungarian )
• World Health Organization (WHO): Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports on the website www.who.int (English)
• Johns Hopkins CSSE : Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases. (English)
• Website World of Meters : real-time data of the Corona virus pandemic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pulmonologists on the net: Covid-19: Causes . Online at www.lungenaerzte-im-netz.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
2. ↑ Tagesschau: "Deeply worried". WHO speaks of corona pandemic . March 11, 2020. Online at www.tagesschau.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
3. ↑ Megvan az első két fertőzött, Magyarországot is elérte a járvány (There are the first two infected, the pandemic has also reached Hungary). FEOL, March 4, 2020, accessed April 4, 2020 (Hungarian). 
4. ↑ Meghalt az első magyar beteg (The first Hungarian patient has died). koronavirus.gov.hu, March 15, 2020, accessed April 4, 2020 (Hungarian). 
5. ↑ Fábián Tamás: Az egész országban jelen van a koronavírus (The coronavirus is spread across the country). March 18, 2020, accessed April 4, 2020 (Hungarian). 
6. ^ Coronavirus: State of Emergency Ordered by Gov't. In: Hungary Today. March 11, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Covid-19 - Hungary lifts the state of emergency. Retrieved June 17, 2020 (German). 
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Péter Cseresnyés: Bill on Indefinite Extension of Special Decrees Garners Distrust over Rule of Law and Freedom of Media. In: Hungary Today. March 24, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Nem a korlátlan hatalom az orvosság - Álláspont a veszélyhelyzet meghosszabbításáról és annak alkotmányos feltételeiről. In: helsinki.hu. Magyar Helsinki Bizottság, March 22, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
10. ↑ Az ellenzék elutasította a veszélyhelyzet meghosszabbítását. In: hirado.hu. MTVA, March 23, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
11. ↑ Péter Cseresnyes: Law on Enhanching Gov't Powers: Is Democracy Over? What Exactly is in the New Legislation? In: Hungary Today. March 31, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Nick Thorpe: Coronavirus: Hungary government gets sweeping powers. BBC News, March 30, 2020, accessed April 4, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Áder János: a kormány felhatalmazása nem korlátlan. In: Infostart. March 30, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
14. ↑ Nick Thorpe: Coronavirus: Hungary government gets sweeping powers. BBC News, March 30, 2020, accessed April 4, 2020 . 
15. ↑ László Csizmadia: Öngólok az ellenzék hálójában. In: Magyar Hírlap. April 4, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
16. ↑ Tamás Fricz: Politikai akaratot hajtanak végre. In: Magyar Nemzet. April 4, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
17. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hungarian Press Roundup: Weeklies on Hungary's Epidemic Emergency Bill. In: Hungary Today. April 6, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
18. ^ John O'Sullivan: Hungary's Emergency Law Is Flawed - But It Doesn't Herald 'Dictatorship'. In: National Review. National Review, Inc., April 3, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
19. ^ János Kárpáti: Kárpáti János: Bizalom kérdése. In: 168 Óra Online. Adaptive Media, April 1, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
20. ^ Péter Németh: Orbán, a Kékszakállú. In: Népszava. April 4, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
21. ↑ János Széky: Fő a FÉLELEM. In: Élet és Irodalom. April 3, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 (Hungarian). 
22. ↑ Hungary, Orban and the discontent with the EU reaction to the Enabling Act. Deutsche Welle, April 1, 2020, accessed on April 4, 2020 . 
23. ↑ ^{a b c} Reaction to Orbán's emergency laws: 13 EPP parties demand exclusion from Fidesz party. In: Der Spiegel. Spiegel Group, April 2, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
24. ↑ Emergency law in Hungary: EU warns against disproportionate steps. In: tagesschau.de. ARD, March 31, 2020, accessed on April 8, 2020 . 
25. ↑ Markus Becker: Trouble in the EU Parliament: 13 EPP delegations are calling for the Orbán party to be kicked out. In: Der Spiegel. Spiegel Gruppe, April 7, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
26. ↑ ^{a b} 13 EU states warn against violations of fundamental rights. In: Die Zeit online. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, April 2, 2020, accessed on April 8, 2020 . 
27. ^ Statement by Hungary. In: kormany.hu. Hungarian Government, April 1, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
28. ↑ Martin Schulz calls for the cancellation of EU money for Hungary. In: Zeit Online. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, April 3, 2020, accessed on April 8, 2020 . 
29. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ábrahám Vass: Gov't Proposes Changes on Debated Issues: Liget Project, Budapest-Belgrade Railway Classification, Many More. In: Hungary Today. April 3, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
30. ↑ Hungary no longer wants to recognize transsexuals. In: Queer.de. Queer Communications GmbH, April 1, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
31. ↑ ^{a b c} Ábrahám Vass: Coronavirus: Gov't Proposes, then Drops Bill Within 17 Hours That Would Assign Defense Committees Over Mayors. In: Hungary Today. April 2, 2020, accessed April 8, 2020 . 
32. ↑ Tusk calls for exclusion proceedings against Fidesz. In: Die Zeit Online. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, April 1, 2020, accessed on April 8, 2020 . 
33. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports. WHO, accessed June 8, 2020 . 
34. ↑ As of August 16, 2020, the daily announcement of the numbers was changed to a weekly rhythm. The numbers of the first weekly report ( August 17, 2020 , pdf) are identical to those of the WHO report No. 209 (August 16, 2020, pdf) and are also based on the status of August 16, 2020 at 10 a.m. after the report itself is shown . They can therefore be continued seamlessly from the second weekly report ( August 24, 2020 , pdf), as this was announced accordingly at 10 a.m. on August 23, 2020. In order not to make this too confusing, the date of the publication (August 24th) is not used here for the database (August 23rd).