Government able to give up special powers thanks to effective epidemic response

Hungary’s government is in a position to give up its special powers handed to it by parliament at the start of the coronavirus epidemic because of how effective the fight against the outbreak has been, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday.

The strict response measures Hungary introduced puts it in a category of countries that have not experienced mass infections, Gergely Gulyás told an online press briefing.

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He added, at the same time, that the health system would have to remain alert and prepared. This means hospitals will continue to operate under their current management structure and the chief medical officer and the government will be given special authority to handle the epidemic, Gulyás said.

This can include the power to uphold shopping time restrictions for the elderly and a ban on organising events, he said.

Meanwhile, Gulyás also said that the government could not count on the left-wing opposition parties in the fight against the epidemic, arguing that they had refused to back the epidemic response law and had spent the period of the state of emergency “attacking the government and the experts coordinating the epidemic response”.

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