Mitigating Covid-19 pandemic, but at what cost? Hungary’s emergency measures in light of the Rule of law as a European value

The work addresses the measures adopted by Hungary in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, namely in the period from March 2020 to March 2021. It submits that the process of progressive departure from democracy, liberalism and the rule of law started by the Fidesz government in 2010, which brought the country to the verge of authoritarianism, has reached a new peak with the reorganisation of powers during the management of the pandemic. The dimension of this problem is not only national but indeed European, the rule of law being a foundational European value entrenched in Article 2 TEU, which, according to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU, requires the separation of powers among the different branches of government. Therefore, the last part of the paper assesses the reaction of the EU institutions to the Hungarian situation and discusses whether some room exists for improvement.