Hungary’s Magyar scraps state of emergency introduced by Orbán over threat of war

Hungary's new Prime Minister Péter Magyar has scrapped the state of emergency introduced by his predecessor Viktor Orbán over the threat of war.

Viktor Orbán introduced the state of emergency first in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and later over Russian aggression against Ukraine.

"Today, after four years, the state of emergency introduced by Orbán over the threat of war is ending and with it we are saying goodbye to rule by decree, introduced six years ago. We are returning to normal life," Magyar wrote on Facebook.

Hungarian law provides for three special legal situations: martial law, a state of emergency and a state of danger. In all three cases, the government has the right to issue decrees.

The state of emergency was declared in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then extended in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the authorities in Budapest regularly extended it.

Péter Magyar stated earlier that the new government gives President Tamás Sulyok time until the end of May to voluntarily step down, otherwise allowing for his removal through amendments to the Fundamental Law.

On 13 May, Sulyok condemned a Russian drone attack on Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast and Hungary's Foreign Minister Anita Orbán summoned the Russian ambassador over the attack – the first such case since the start of the full-scale war.