Elections and referendums will be postponed indefinitely. Crucially, the Bill on Protection Against Coronavirus has no sunset clause, meaning it is up to the government to decide when — or if — to end the state of emergency.

“Hungary’s already run as an illiberal democracy,” political commentator Zoltan Cegledi told BIRN. “The government’s will to destroy, limit and exhaust democracy is permanent. Its future victims will be the remnants of autonomy.

“Even before the pandemic threat, they [the government] tried to besiege cultural institutions and representatives while attacking judicial independence.”

The government rejects the criticism, saying parliament can revoke the emergency powers and arguing the law allows it to take decisive action to fight coronavirus, which has killed 16 people in Hungary.

But in a parliament dominated by Orban’s nationalist-populist Fidesz party, analysts say it is fanciful to think opposition lawmakers can overturn the legislation or push back on decrees unrelated to coronavirus.

The legislation allows up to five years of imprisonment for anyone who publishes false or distorted facts that alarm or agitate the public, or undermine its “successful protection”. Critics say this wording opens the door to censorship.

“The remaining checks and balances in Hungary will cease to exist and the country will likely witness a new wave of attacks against the free press,” Political Capital Institute, a Budapest-based think tank, wrote in analysis of the bill.

The remaining checks and balances in Hungary will cease to exist and the country will likely witness a new wave of attacks against the free press. – Political Capital Institute

Mertek, a media watchdog, called the law “the end of days for independent media in Hungary”.

The International Commission of Jurists has denounced the emergency bill while the United Nations has warned of abusing emergency measures to suppress human rights.

According to Lydia Gall, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, Orban has already “weaponised coronavirus to stoke xenophobia” after claiming COVID-19 was imported to Hungary by Iranian students.

Prior to the outbreak, Orban’s government took flak for its controversial decision to ignore court-ordered compensation of millions of euros for Roma victims of segregated schooling and prisoners holed up in dire conditions.

“It smacks of anti-Roma sentiment and contempt for rule of law,” Gall wrote recently.