ハンガリーなど名指し、「もはや民主主義国でない」　人権報告書

【ブダペストＡＦＰ＝時事】米人権監視団体「フリーダム・ハウス」は6日、ハンガリー、セルビア、モンテネグロで民主主義が前例のない規模で後退しており、もはや民主主義国とはいえないとする報告書を発表した。（写真はハンガリーのオルバン・ビクトル首相）
　フリーダム・ハウスは年次報告書「ネーションズ・イン・トランジット（移行期の国々の意）」の中で、特にハンガリーではオルバン・ビクトル首相の強権的な「体制」により、民主主義国としての地位が「急激に」失われたと指摘。「現在のハンガリーはもはや、民主主義国とはみなせない」「民主主義と純粋な独裁政治の間の『グレーゾーン』に位置する（中略）ハイブリッド体制だ」と評した。
　報告書はオルバン政権について、「民主的な制度を尊重するふりを一切放棄した」とも述べている。
　ハンガリーは３月、新型コロナウイルス感染症（ＣＯＶＩＤ-１９）対策として、首相の権限拡大や非常事態宣言の無期限延長を可能とする非常事態法を可決した。これにより「オルバン政権の非民主的な性格がよりあらわになった」 と報告書は指摘している。
　フリーダム・ハウスはまた、バルカン半島のセルビアとモンテネグロについても、それぞれアレクサンダル・ブチッチ大統領、ミロ・ジュカノビッチ大統領の下で「国家による拘束、職権乱用、独裁的な手法を用いる事例がここ数年増加している」ことを理由に、２００３年以来初めて民主主義国としての地位を失ったと報告した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/05/08-13:13）

Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro can no longer be called democracies after unprecedented democratic backsliding, a rights watchdog said Wednesday, noting the especially precipitous fall down the rankings of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's regime.
The US-based Freedom House declared in its annual Nations in Transit report that Hungary is instead a hybrid regime...in a 'grey zone' between democracies and pure autocracies.
Balkan states Serbia and Montenegro have also lost their democratic status for the first time since 2003 due to years of increasing state capture, abuse of power, and strongman tactics employed by their respective Presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Milo Djukanovic, the report said.
The decline of EU member Hungary, once a democratic frontrunner in 2005, was the most precipitous ever tracked by the human rights group.
In 2020 Hungary became the first country to fall by two of the group's ranking categories and leave the group of democracies entirely, the report said.
Hungary today can no longer be regarded as a democracy, Freedom House said.
Orban's government has dropped any pretence of respecting democratic institutions, it said.
After centralising power, tilting the electoral playing field, taking over much of the media, and harassing critical civil society organisations since 2010, Orban moved during 2019 to consolidate control over new areas of public life, including education and the arts.
The adoption in March of a COVID-19 emergency law that lets the government rule by decree indefinitely has further exposed the undemocratic character of Orban's regime.
A Hungarian government spokesperson dismissed the ranking and described the group as the fist of the Soros network, referring to the US billionaire George Soros long accused by Orban of meddling in Hungary.
Freedom House was once known as the bipartisan human rights organisation. With their Soros funding they've declined, said Zoltan Kovacs in a Twitter post.
Anyone who doesn't conform to their liberal view, gets downgraded, he said.
Freedom House also reported a stunning democratic breakdown across the 29 countries it surveyed from central Europe to central Asia, noting there are now fewer democracies in the region today than at any point since the annual report was launched in 1995.