June 2nd, 2021
On consecutive days, the left-wing national daily carries two diverging opinions about whether the Left should swiftly abolish the Fundamental Law passed by the Fidesz majority in 2011.
In Népszava, Jenő Ferincz agrees with previous contributors to the debate, who argued that the Left, if it wins the elections next year, should declare the Fundamental Law null and void (see e.g. BudaPost, May 24). He believes that Parliament, however, is not entitled to do so without a two-thirds majority. Such a declaration, he suggests, must come from the Constitutional Court. In order for that to happen,he continues, Parliament should elect new judges to the Constitutional Court. (He doesn’t address the problem that the judges cannot be replaced before their 12-year mandate expires and that the new ones require a two-thirds majority in Parliament to be elected.)
In the same daily, Pál Vastagh, a former socialist Minister of Justice cautions against ‘revolutionary’ legislation. Although the Fundamental Law restricts the elbow room of the new government, he argues, it doesn’t paralyse it. A new constitution, on the other hand, should enjoy the support of the majority of Hungarians, he warns. In his concluding remark, he suggests that the strongly majoritarian electoral system might even yield the Left a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Tags: constitution, Constitutional Court, election, opposition
