Hungarian President Victor Orban Given Sweeping Powers to Combat COVID-19

Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban has been granted open-ended powers to rule by decree to end the spread of the coronavirus. Orban, who has been widely criticized for his anti-immigration stance by human rights groups, can now suspend parliament and cancel elections and send people to jail for up to five years for spreading fake news and rumors about COVID-19 and up to eight years for leaving quarantine. The new legislation, passed Monday, does not have an end date and critics worry that Orban will ultimately use the power to muzzle journalists and jail migrants. Orban supporters tried to calm fears that it would turn Orban into a dictator. “This is an authorization limited both in time and scope,” state secretary Bence Retvari told the opposition parties before the vote. “It is solely related to the coronavirus and you are crying a dictatorship.”