Judiciary under control of fascistic government

Another step of demolishing the democracy on the way towards the fascism in Hungary can be known by a Guardian article⁽¹⁾:

Victor Orbán

In Hungary, one woman effectively controls the judiciary, and she happens to be married to the author of its constitution
Imagine a European country where one person can pick the judges. And effectively sack them or transfer them to other courts. And draw up court rules. And initiate legislation on the courts. And hold some 60 other specified legal powers
(...)
All these powers are in the hands of Tünde Handó⁽²⁾, a former judge and president of the newly established national judicial office (NJO). No doubt it's pure coincidence that she is married to József Szájer⁽³⁾, a founding member of the ruling Fidesz party and the man credited with drawing up Hungary's constitution on his iPad.
(...)
"When not only the fundamental principles but also very specific and detailed rules on certain issues will be enacted in cardinal laws," it[Venice commission⁽⁴⁾] added, "the principle of democracy itself is at risk."

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Sources:
(1) 20/03/2012, The Guardian, Joshua Rozenberg: Meet Tünde Handó http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/20/tunde-hando-hungarian-judges (The Orbán photo is linked from here.)
      23/03/2012, The Guardian: Unveil the courts? http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/23/1
      21/03/2012, HVG.hu: Guardian: "Ismerjék meg Handó Tündét" - excerpt from the Guardian article in Hungarian, with translation of some parts of it: http://hvg.hu/vilag/20120321_hando_guardian
     Eva S. Balogh 13/12/2011: The end of the independent judiciary, http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/2011/12/the-end-of-the-independent-judiciary.html

Tünde Handó

"Until now the appointment of judges was the jurisdiction of an organization consisting of high-level judges, the chief justice, and the minister of justice. This organization was abolished. In its place the Orbán government set up the Országos Bírósági Hivatal (OBH) whose head, appointed for nine years, will be able to pick judges single-handedly. This position as of today is filled by Tünde Handó⁽²⁾, the wife of József Szájer⁽³⁾, Fidesz European parliamentary member and one of the founders of Fidesz.

József Szájer

He was the one who wrote the Hungarian constitution on an iPad on the train between Budapest and Brussels. Moreover, Tünde Handó is a very close friend of both Viktor Orbán and his wife, Anikó Lévai. They all lived in the same dormitory in the 1980s as law students. The friendship has lasted almost 30 years. Tünde and Anikó can often be seen together attending concerts or theatre performances."

(3) Tünde Handó on Wikipedia (in Hungarian): http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand%C3%B3_T%C3%BCnde
(4) József Szájer on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zsef_Sz%C3%A1jer

(3) Venice Commission: http://www.venice.coe.int/site/main/Presentation_E.asp

"The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. Established in 1990, the commission has played a leading role in the adoption of constitutions that conform to the standards of Europe's constitutional heritage.

Initially conceived as a tool for emergency constitutional engineering, the commission has become an internationally recognised independent legal think-tank. Today it contributes to the dissemination of the European constitutional heritage, based on the continent's fundamental legal values while continuing to provide “constitutional first-aid” to individual states. The Venice Commission also plays a unique and unrivalled role in crisis management and conflict prevention through constitution building and advice."

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Notes:
"the principle of democracy itself is at risk." - the main problem is not so with principles but as much more rather practise. Fidesz (Orbán) has ability even all of the tools to make the world believe that they are building democracy in Hungary. And the world readily believes it. None of the country needs diplomatic complication, does it? It is more convenient to close their eyes and ears, to believe that there are no any serious problem and to learn what the Fidesz government pretends.

We wonder what if a country doesn't take the advices of this type of commissions⁽⁵⁾. As can be seen regarding the case of the Paris Peace Treaty(1947). The international agreement even contained by Hungarian act is good for nothing. None of any signatories (e.g. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa ) does care about the violation of the agreement. So it can happens in the 21th century in the middle of Europe that a little country has been marching on the way towards a new type of fascism even nacizm undisturbed.

After all at this time the world will not have any excuse (e.g.: "Sorry. How could we imagine that those terrible things would happen? We had no any ideas what were going on in Germany and later in Europe?") for why they allowed to happen. Indeed the victims are not/will not be happy knowing about it.

No Orbán Day

1 February 2011. (5–7 pm), Hungary, 1088 Budapest:  Szentkirályi street 18. Fidesz Headquarters⁽¹⁾

Demonstration for democracy


1 February 1946: Hungary became a republic form of government instead of kingdom (The 2nd Hungarian Republic ⁽²⁾)

Today, the Democrats need to act again, because we again have a politician who is authoritarian, dictatorial, so the 3rd Hungarian Republic is in danger.

Recites a poem:
Akos Kertesz, Kossuth Prize writer

Speech:
Gaspar Miklos Tamas, a philosopher
Laszlo Marton, a writer

Perfect Hungarian syndrome

We can get a perfect picture of the political situation in Hungary from an article⁽¹⁾ with title Cipolla, written by László Bartus⁽²⁾.

Unfortunately, it is in Hungarian. Indeed, a part of Hungarian people ("the democrats") are exactly aware of what is going on in Hungary. And they let it. They don't want to do anything. They are just like the Three wise monkeys⁽³⁾: they cover their eyes, they cover their ears and they cover their mouth. A few public intellectuals write excellent articles or some books, more or less in soft-style. Sometimes in exclusive clubs they give some lectures on the danger of threatening democracy. That's all. They are slacktivists, in fact. "The democrats" are waiting for a miracle, maybe.

The other part of Hungarians is in coma, hypnotized by far-right team of Viktor Orbán.They don't hear, don't see, don't speak anything else but what Viktor Orbán, the boss wants to. And they do what he wants to.

So it's more useful to write these things in English, letting them be known by the world.

Bartus described the whole Hungarian syndrome precisely showing how it has been formed for years.

Thanks to a native Hungarian blogger, Eva S. Balogh living in English language area, the most important parts of the original article can be read in English⁽⁴⁾, too. Some pieces of it:

Bartus claims that in the last two weeks or so events took place in Hungary which point to the reasons for the nation's depravity and for the country's loss of competitiveness. Who is responsible for that? "Viktor Orbán and his propaganda machine" that for years has been repeating that the former government stole the Hungarian people's last penny, that the budget consisted of falsified data, that there was no need for reforms, that austerity was unnecessary, and that it was perfectly all right to have a deficit as high as 7.5%. At the same time Orbán systematically destroyed the ability of the government to govern, ruined people's faith in democracy, questioned the legitimacy of the constitution. By now he has managed to destroy the whole institutional underpinning of democracy.

According to Bartus, "one man built up a propaganda machine, a structure that he alone controls, and created a sect that believes in his omnipotence. He uses patriotism to manipulate, to stigmatize and exclude his political opponents. He managed to make intelligent people become brainless admirers, obedient and fearful subjects.... He managed to turn people against each other, make people hate each other, and taught his people to hate the outside world.... He created sheep and obedient parrots around himself who without the slightest sign of thinking keep repeating what they are told.... With his destructive speeches he poisoned the whole nation. For the sake of his own power he managed to destroy the res publica, let loose the extremists, and create a civil war within the country. He created a situation in which peace and quiet is an impossibility as long as Viktor Orbán is the prime minister.... Hungary has lost at least 25-30 years because it produced a man named Viktor Orbán from Felcsút."

But we recommend to read the whole English language article with additions of Eva S. Balogh.
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Sources, informations:
(1) http://www.nepszava.com/index.php?topic=4455&page=4696
(2) Amerikai-Magyar Népszava Szabadság: a Hungarian-language weekly published in New York, http://www.nepszava.com . It's editor-in-chief László Bartus was a well-known Hungarian journalist who also published several books before moving to the United States.
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys
(4) http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/2010/09/an-opinion-on-the-current-hungarian-situation.html