State of emergency in Hungary may be extended by 180 days whenever from November

The state of emergency in Hungary can be extended by up to 180 days from 1 November, according to an amendment to the law submitted to Parliament by Fidesz member Máté Kocsis on Tuesday.

According to the amendment, “the Government may, with effect from 1 November 2022, request the authorisation of Parliament to extend the state of emergency beyond 30 days for a maximum period of 180 days at a time, with the possibility of granting such authorisation more than once.”

The amendment allows the Parliament to extend the state of emergency again and again for (up to) 180 days “in view of the armed conflict and humanitarian disaster in Ukraine and in order to avert the consequences of such a situation in Hungary,” Telex reports.

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State of war first declared on 24 May

Viktor Orbán announced on 24 May that a state of war would be declared from midnight on that day. Orbán explained this by saying that there was a war going on in the neighbourhood. A war “which no one can see the end of yet”. The Prime Minister said that room for manoeuvre and the ability to act immediately were needed.

On this basis, the Constitution was amended, adding the possibility to impose this status in the event of a humanitarian disaster or armed conflict in a neighbouring country. In the Hungarian legal order, a state of emergency is a so-called qualified period, in which a special legal order comes into force. This means that the government can adopt decrees to suspend the application of certain laws during an emergency.

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The need to set a time limit

Máté Kocsis reviewed similar European regulations and noted that several countries (e.g. Italy, Latvia, Finland) set a time limit for the declaration and extension of an emergency or the corresponding special legal order category. In his view, taking into account the possibility to take measures restricting fundamental rights during a state of emergency, as was the case during the coronavirus pandemic, it is justified to set a time limit for the extension of the state of emergency by the Parliament, 24.hu writes.

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Source: Telex, 24.hu