On 4th July, the Hungarian Parliament passed a law amending the status of teachers. More commonly known as the “Status law”, it limits the independence of the teaching profession. This is another attack on fundamental rights from Fidesz, while at the same time, Hungary has now been under the Article 7 sanctions procedure for 5 years due to the continual degradation of the rule of law in the country. 

In addition to creating a much less protective status for the teaching profession, the rights and freedoms of teachers will be significantly reduced. Under the guise of ensuring the smooth running of the academic year, this law damages their freedom of speech, as well as their right to strike. In spite of many demonstrations by pupils, parents and teachers, Fidesz members in the Hungarian Parliament voted for the status law, burying  any hope for constructive social dialogue in the near future. 

This is not an isolated case. This law is in line with the continual, well organised deterioration of the rule of law by the Fidesz party, which has been in power since 2011. The party has already attacked all the key areas on which Hungarian democracy is based.

• The repeated reforms to the electoral law, including the restructuring of electoral districts,  which have dramatically disadvantaged opposition parties.
• The weakening of the prerogatives of the Constitutional Court, which has been unable to rule on changes to the Fundamental Law since 2011.
• The increased number of orders to legislate since the introduction of the state of emergency in 2020, following the Covid-19 crisis.
• The use of the Pegasus spy software towards journalists, activists and political opponents.
• The disappearance of pluralism in the press by suffocating independent media which are critical of the government. 

As early as 2011, the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament warned of Fidesz's authoritarian drift. On three occasions, the Greens have carried historic texts on the rule of law and democracy in Hungary. In 2013, the Parliament adopted the Tavares report on the situation of fundamental rights in Hungary. Five years later, the Sargentini report asked the Council to launch the Article 7 sanctions procedure against Hungary due to the violation of European Union fundamental values. Finally in 2022, the Delbos-Corfield report acknowledged that according to the European Parliament, Hungary can no longer be considered a democracy and urged the Council to move forward on the Article 7 procedure. 

Currently, in order to unfreeze Hungary’s access to the European funds, including  the Recovery and Resilience Facility but also eleven other financial programmes, the Hungarian government must work on a series of reforms on the defense of fundamental rights, the independence of justice and the fight against corruption. However, the European Parliament and civil society organisations have not yet observed that  any of these necessary  reforms are on the agenda of the Hungarian Parliament.  

Through damaging academic freedom, this status law fully demonstrates Fidesz's determination to continue its autocratic strategy. The European institutions must therefore not give in to the negotiations on the thawing of EU funds until Hungary is back on the road to democracy.