The effect of Covid on EU democracies

The EU's democratic enfants terribles, Hungary and Poland, were already a source of concern before the pandemic, but the crisis has accentuated the authoritarian tendencies and the deterioration of the division of powers in these countries. [...] The government limited the constitutional rights of people: the right to meet and to move freely, the right to education and the right to privacy. [...] An indirect consequence of the pandemic is the adoption of a few controversial laws, among which are the security bill, the bill against separatism, the bioethics law and the multiannual research programming law, all passed during limited gatherings in Parliament since the beginning of the crisis. [...] 19 The effect of Covid on EU democracies Hungary: continuing illiberal trends during the pandemic by Zsófia Wolford Since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, the Hungarian government has taken several measures to centralise its political and economic powers, resulting in the further deterioration of democracy in the country, even though much of the new legislation is unrelated to tackling. [...] At the same time, to contain the spread of the virus during the first national lockdown, only 350 out of 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 161 out of 315 senators could attend the voting sessions, without the option to participate in the ratification process remotely.