Hungary’s Rule-of-Law Bodies ‘Mostly Brain Dead:’ Watchdog
(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian state bodies that should be defending the rule of law are by now “mostly brain dead” as appointees loyal to Prime Minister Viktor Orban enable institutionalized corruption, Transparency International said.
That explains why Hungary plunged more than any other European Union nation in the graft watchdog’s annual index over the past eight years, the Hungarian chapter of the Berlin-based organization said on Thursday. Hungary ranked 70th in the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with Romania in being seen as the second-most corrupt EU member after Bulgaria.
The extent of Orban’s centralization of power over the past decade is “extremely unique” in the EU and has allowed the government to funnel public funds to a new, politically-connected elite largely with impunity, the watchdog said. The EU is currently investigating Hungary over suspected rule-of-law violations while the bloc’s biggest political group is considering expelling Orban’s party.
“Nowhere in the EU does a government, a state and ultimately one man, the prime minister, have this much power,” Transparency International said. “The erosion of the rule of law is at once a cause and a result of institutionalized corruption.”
Transparency International’s report is “false and distorted,” the government said in a statement, calling its public procurements “totally transparent.” Orban has also argued recently that the country’s strong economic growth and booming investments wouldn’t be possible if graft was so widespread.
(Updates with government reaction in last paragraph.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrew Langley
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