The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is scheduled to vote on 25 June on a different report, also very critical and accurate. If it passes, a different monitoring regime would be established to ensure that Hungary remains a rights-protecting constitutional democracy. But here, too, the vote is expected to be very close. (...)
The Hungarian government desperately wants to avoid sanctions from Europe. It will therefore appear to tinker endlessly with its laws in order to give the impression that it is still in a “dialogue” with European bodies. But by now, Europe should see what the Hungarian government is doing. The government has made small adjustments to the laws before, attempting to fool Europe again and again into thinking that Hungary is a reasonable partner that shares European values. But appearances are deceiving. Fidesz knows that if it can just stay a step ahead of Europe by proposing one legal change after another, triggering one more earnest European evaluation after another, it can avoid the day of reckoning.