Hungary Scraps 4-Year Emergency Rule

(MENAFN) Hungary has officially dismantled its years-long emergency governance structure on Thursday, closing a turbulent chapter of rule-by-decree that stretched from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic through the ongoing war in Ukraine — a period spanning more than four years of sweeping executive authority.

"As of today, after four years, the wartime state of emergency in Hungary is ending," Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced via US social media company X.

"We are returning to normality," he added, saying the move also ends the decree-based emergency rule introduced under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The dismantled framework had granted the government extraordinary legislative powers, with local media reporting that more than 170 emergency-related decrees were issued in connection with the war in neighboring Ukraine alone. The system was first activated in 2020 as a temporary pandemic measure before being repurposed and extended in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Former Prime Minister Orban formally declared a wartime state of emergency in May 2022, shortly after being sworn in for his fifth consecutive government term, citing acute security and humanitarian risks arising from the conflict on Hungary's eastern border.

The political transition that made Thursday's announcement possible came swiftly. Magyar's Tisza Party delivered a landmark defeat to Orban in the April 12 parliamentary elections, ending his 16-year grip on power and triggering a sweeping change in the country's political direction.

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