BRUSSELS — Authoritarian-minded leaders around the world have used the coronavirus emergency to consolidate power. In Europe, the governments of Poland and Hungary have done that and more. They have managed to turn the crisis into a windfall and punish their political opponents, too.

In a hasty effort to show that it was doing something to help during the virus crisis, the European Union repurposed 37 billion euros — about $40 billion — in structural aid funds, designed to help newer and poorer members, for virus aid. The result: Hungary and Poland each got considerably more money than virus-ravaged Italy or Spain.

Rather than punish two governments that have challenged the democratic values at the heart of the European project, the warped allocation of the money, with little oversight or requirement to respect the rule of law, looked more like a reward.

It raised fresh questions about the European Union’s reluctance to criticize two governments that continue to flout the European standards of democracy and rule of law.