This article is the subject of a legal complaint from the Hungarian Embassy

Hungary is turning into the EU’s first fully fledged autocracy, critics have warned, after its prime minister assumed the indefinite power to rule by decree and protests grew against a nationalist curriculum imposed upon schools.

The emergency powers presaged an assault on the free press, analysts said, and the state takeover of retailers and energy and healthcare companies, some 140 of which are already being monitored by military “task forces”.

Under the so-called “omnipotence” law, Viktor Orban, who has governed for a decade, will be able to take measures without parliamentary approval for as long as he sees fit.

“Calling the Orban government an autocracy is by no means an exaggeration,”