Explained | Why has the European Parliament called Hungary a hybrid ‘electoral autocracy’?

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed the European Parliament’s resolution as “a joke”.

The story so far: Hungary can no longer be called a democracy but is now an electoral autocracy, the European Parliament (EP) concluded in a symbolic vote on Thursday. The adopted resolution, with 433 votes in favour, said that Hungary has emerged as a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”. According to EP, an electoral autocracy is a form of government where elections are conducted but “respect for democratic norms and standards is absent”.

One hundred and twenty-three votes were counted against the resolution, and 28 abstentions were recorded.

This is not the first time that democracy in Hungary under the rule of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been questioned.

In 2018, a majority of EP members voted to determine that Hungary was at the risk of breaching the European Union’s (EU) founding values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union. These values include respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.

Prime Minister Orban is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and registered his fourth victory in Hungary by a landslide margin in April 2022. 

The 2018 resolution, approved by 448 votes in favour to 197 against, was the first time the EP had asked the EU Council to act against a member State to “prevent a systemic threat to the Union’s founding values”.

Members of the European Parliament wanted EU countries to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 7(1) of the EU treaty, which states that the Council, after receiving the Parliament’s consent and a majority of four fifths of its members, can determine that a member State is at the “risk of a serious breach” of values outlined in Article 2. The Council is also obliged to hear out the member State in question before making such a determination.