Spectre of coronavirus quarantine haunts Hungarian democracy, say

A "DICTATORSHIP" at the heart of the EU? A draft law to grant anticoronavirus emergency measures set for adoption by Budapest has alarmed observers who fear it will hand Prime Minister Viktor Orban unlimited power.

"Hungary is a special case, nowhere else have you the kind of extraordinary measures that Orban is proposing," said Milan Nic, an expert with the Berlin-based German Council for Foreign Relations.

After declaring a state of emergency on March 11, Orban expects parliament to vote on Tuesday to allow him to extend it indefinitely and rule by decree in order to better fight COVID-19 and its impacts.

If parliament, dominated by his rightwing Fidesz party, approves the "coronavirus law" with the necessary two-thirds majority, Orban's cabinet could in theory enjoy effectively unchecked power.

"His government is already in a stronger position than anywhere else in the EU. Hungary is no longer a country of democratic checks and balances," said Nic.

The law would also enable heavy jail terms for publishers of "false information" about the virus and the government's measures, stoking new worries for Hungarian press freedoms that have dwindled under Orban.

- 'EU's first dictatorship'? A former anticommunist turned self-styled "illiberal" nationalist, 56-yearold Orban has also transformed Hungary's political, judicial, and constitutional landscape since he came to power in 2010.

His many clashes with the European institutions, NGOs and rights groups over migration, democracy, and the rule of law have seen Budapest sued by Brussels for "breaching" EU values.

"Until now, the system installed by Orban was seen as a 'hybrid state', neither democracy nor dictatorship," said former journalist Paul Lendvai in an editorial this week in Austria's Der Standard.