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Hungary’s Judges Warn of Threats to Judicial Independence [1]
['Benjamin Novak', 'Patrick Kingsley']
Date: 2018-05-02
BUDAPEST — Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, has faced little meaningful blowback — either inside or outside the country — in his eight-year quest to turn the country into an illiberal state. But on Wednesday he faced new obstacles at home and abroad that presented a rare headache.
The first was an unprecedented condemnation of his judicial chief, Tunde Hando, whom a panel of senior judges accused on Wednesday of “groundless” interference in the way judges are hired and promoted.
The second came from Brussels, where the European Union announced that the billions in euros it sends its members might in the future be dependent on the recipients’ safeguarding the independence of their judiciaries and investigating corruption.
The European Union’s announcement, particularly in light of the internal criticism, may be problematic for Mr. Orban. For most of the past decade, European Union funds have constituted nearly 4 percent of Hungary’s gross domestic product, one of the highest rates in the bloc. And European Union officials have accused a company once controlled by Mr. Orban’s son-in-law of misusing millions of euros from the bloc.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/world/europe/hungary-judges-independence.html
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