Freedom in the World 1999 - Hungary

1999 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Civil Liberties: 2
Political Rights: 1

Overview

In the year 2000, Hungary celebrated a millennium of statehood, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared the country's economic and political transition from communism a success. Efforts to meet European Union (EU) accession requirements, the retirement of two-term president Arpad Goncz, and allegations of high-level corruption also marked the year.

King Stephen I, who ruled from 1001 to 1038, is credited with founding the Hungarian state. In the centuries that followed, however, Hungarian lands passed through Turkish, Polish, and Austrian hands. In the mid-nineteenth century, Hungary established a liberal, constitutional monarchy under the Austrian Hapsburgs, but two world wars and a Communist dictatorship in the twentieth century forestalled true independence.

By the late 1980s, Hungary's economy was in decline, and the Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party came under intense pressure to accept reforms. Ultimately, the party congress dissolved itself, and Hungary held its first free, multiparty parliamentary election in 1990. The new parliament made Jozsef Antall, a member of the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum, the new head of state. Since then, government control has passed freely and fairly between left- and right-leaning parties, and the country has followed an aggressive reform path. Hungary joined NATO in 1999.

In 2000, Prime Minister Orban declared the end of Hungary's post-Communist transition when output and real wages reached 1989 levels. The United Nations Committee on Trade and Development called Hungary's economy "the most open" in the region, and the European Commission (EC) praised Hungary's progress in fulfilling EU accession criteria. The EC still urged the country to reduce the backlog of cases before the supreme court, renew anti-corruption efforts, address overcrowding in prisons, and sustain improvements in the treatment of Roma (Gypsies).

President Goncz completed his second and final term in August. In a third round of voting, parliament elected Ference Madl, a professor of international law and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, to this largely ceremonial post. Madl served as minister of education and culture after Hungary's first democratic elections in 1990.

Fallout from an illegal oil-import scheme in the early 1990s continued. In March 2000, parliament launched an investigation into the role played by state police. In June, former police lieutenant Istvan Sandor testified that the current interior minister and several members of parliament had been involved, but he was unable to offer solid evidence. The incident highlighted long-standing concerns about corruption in Hungary and other post-Communist countries in the region.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Hungary is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy that comprises legislative, executive, and judicial branches of governments. Citizens age 18 and older enjoy universal suffrage and can change their government democratically. They elect 386 deputies to the unicameral national assembly under a mixed system of proportional and direct representation. Parliament elects both the president and the prime minister.

Post-Communist elections in Hungary have been free and fair. In June 2000 parliament elected Ference Madl president in a third round of voting. President Goncz had completed a maximum two terms in office. After parliamentary elections in 1998, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe praised Hungary's "strong electoral process" and the media's balanced coverage. Twenty-six parties registered for the first round of elections; six received a mandate.

The 1998 election resulted in a change of government when the opposition Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESZ) formed a center-right coalition government with the Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP) and the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). Together they control 213 out of 386 seats in the national assembly. The ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) captured only 134 seats. The new parliament elected Victor Orban, of FIDESZ, prime minister. The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2002.

The constitution guarantees national and ethnic minorities the right to form self-governing bodies, and all 13 recognized minorities have exercised this right. In July 2000 more than 40 Roma filed a complaint against Hungary with the European Court of Human Rights. In September the government announced a two-year, $8.2 million program to provide vocational training and other programs for Roma youth. The Interior Ministry has pledged to deal with police violence against Roma by providing special training and hiring more Romany police officers.

Independent media thrive in Hungary, but oversight of state television and radio remains a controversial issue. A 1996 media law requires ruling and opposition parties to share appointments to the boards overseeing state television and radio. But critics charge that the current government has manipulated the law by approving boards composed solely of its supporters and has thereby gained undue influence over hiring and reporting. The issue was highlighted in 2000, when opposition parties failed to make new appointments to two boards. The government prompted criticism from Western ambassadors and press freedom advocates when it again confirmed boards with only its supporters. Parliament extended the lustration law to the media in 2000, and the constitutional court ruled on three freedom of speech cases. The court upheld a ban on displaying authoritarian symbols like swastikas and the hammer and sickle, ruled in favor of a prohibition against the desecration of national symbols, and struck down a ban on speech that could incite public panic.

The constitution guarantees religious freedom and provides for the separation of church and state. There are approximately 100 registered religious groups – primarily Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Jews – to which the state provides financial support for worship, parochial schools, and the reconstruction of property. A 1991 law requires the state to provide restitution for church properties that were seized under communism. In 2000, the constitutional court deemed that a law on compensating Holocaust victims was discriminatory because the amount of recompense was significantly less than that awarded to victims of the 1956 anti-Communist uprising.

The government respects citizens' rights to form associations, strike, and petition public authorities. Railway employees, farmers, and health care workers all went on strike in 2000 to demand better wages. Likewise, fifty civic organizations picketed parliament to demand better wages and benefits for the poor, and 5,000 representatives of the country's six trade union confederations protested amendments to the labor code. Trade unions now account for less than 30 percent of the workforce. There are more than 60,000 registered nongovernmental organizations.

Hungary has a three-tiered independent judiciary and a constitutional court. The constitution guarantees equality before the law, and courts are generally fair. In an effort to improve judicial efficiency, more than 90 new judges were appointed in 2000. Legislation designed to reduce the length of civil court procedures also came into effect. In 1999 the national police agency set up an internal affairs division to deal with corruption in its ranks.

The government respects personal autonomy and privacy. It also honors the institutions of family and marriage and recognizes the equality of women and men. In 2000, a two-year investigation ended when Prosecutor-General Peter Polt confirmed that in 1996 the socialist-led government hired a private detective to spy on the FIDESZ parliamentary group.

The constitution states that the Hungarian economy is a market economy in which private property, free enterprise, and competition are respected. The country boasts one of the fastest-growing and freest economies in the region, and approximately 80 percent of state-owned enterprises have been privatized. In its 2000 progress report, the European Commission urged Hungary to reduce "significant regional differences" in unemployment and "increase the flexibility and mobility of labour."