After six years, governance under the state of emergency related to the armed conflict in Ukraine has ended in Hungary

Tl;dr: Orbán ruled by decrees for 6 years. Because of this, Orbán made hundreds of decrees, all of them were unrelated to the war. The Magyar goverment has elevated these decress to law because the country would’ve collapsed otherwise. With time they’ll either remove or change these laws.

**After six years, governance under the state of emergency related to the armed conflict in Ukraine has ended in Hungary. The state of emergency was first declared by the Orbán government in 2020 citing the coronavirus pandemic, and it was kept in place in 2022 citing the Russian-Ukrainian war.**

Back in 2020, Gergely Gulyás said, “Even though the left accused us of wanting the special legal order to last forever, it will end sooner than in most European countries.” The statement did not age well. In recent years, the Fidesz-KDNP majority in parliament repeatedly extended the state of emergency, **meaning the Orbán government effectively governed through an entire four-year term under extraordinary legal powers.**

After Péter Magyar and Tisza’s victory, he asked Fidesz to extend the special legal order until May 31 because, according to their calculations, at least 160 emergency decrees are currently still in force. “**The incoming Tisza government will have to amend 150 to 160 laws, and that will take a few weeks. So we ask the outgoing government to extend this, unless of course its intention is to make the country ungovernable on day one**.”

We previously wrote that the transition period was necessary to avoid legal chaos because the sudden end of the state of emergency would have instantly invalidated the emergency government decrees introduced by Viktor Orbán and his government over recent years by bypassing parliament and citing either the armed conflict in Ukraine or earlier the coronavirus pandemic.

**The outgoing government did not extend the state of emergency related to the armed conflict in Ukraine, but on May 9 parliament voted to elevate the emergency decrees into ordinary law.** The law authored by Melléthei-Barna Márton came into force on May 14. According to MTI, the law maintains until November 30 a payment moratorium on loan agreements for farmers affected by frost or drought damage as well as for pig farmers and pig breeders. Farmers affected by the consequences of foot-and-mouth disease may also receive a payment moratorium on their loan agreements until June 30, 2027.

An amendment making it the responsibility of the minister in charge of prisons to oversee juvenile correctional institutions has also been elevated to the level of statutory law. The protected fuel price remains in place, and the retail margin cap also remains, although a higher upper limit was introduced because of market competition. The deadline for settling utility discounts related to the prolonged cold weather in January has also been extended, and from July 1 the advertising tax will continue to remain at 0 percent.

The anti-drug trafficking law concerning the responsibility of venues has also been elevated to statutory law.