The government has said that the emergency powers are necessary to fight the outbreak, but political analysts say they have questions about whether Orban will relinquish them when the health crisis subsides. Hungary has 447 coronavirus cases and 15 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

“He is using this crisis to further increase his power,” said András Bíró-Nagy, the director of the Budapest-based Policy Solutions think tank. “The Hungarian prime minister enjoys the situation where he can act as a captain in a crisis. I don’t see him giving up these powers again easily.”

He pointed to the fact that Orban, leader of the right-wing anti-immigration Fidesz party, still holds emergency powers introduced in 2016 to deal with the migrant crisis.

Orban does not stand alone in being accused of a coronavirus power grab amid concerns that leaders with authoritarian tendencies could exploit the current crisis.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of carrying out what critics have dubbed a …continued .
[Source: Washington Post]