The municipality of Ásotthalom, led by a mayor who is a member of the Jobbik party, has recently passed a decree, which prohibits the public activities of the muezzin, the public wearing of the burqa, as well as the expression of opinions about marriage and the family that diverge from the concept of the Fundamental Law. The decree clearly goes against the whole catalogue of fundamental rights: if the government or the ombudsman initiates its constitutional review, the Constitutional Court will surely abolish it. This, however, shall in no way be regarded as the victory of the Fundamental Law. It is the Fundamental Law itself and its bizarre interpretation by the Constitutional Court that lay the ground for regulations which violate equal dignity and subordinate the individual to the will of the majority.
EKINT drew attention to this kind of danger a year ago, at that time in relation to the Constitutional Court decision that made it possible for the municipalities to punish homelessness. The act on municipalities authorises the municipal councils to regulate “the basic rules of living together in a community, and the legal consequences of breaking these rules” in decrees, without providing any framework or restrictions on such regulations. This goes against the minimum requirements of the rule of law and against the act on legislation, which stipulates that when authorising a body to legislate, the body, the subject and the framework of the authorisation shall be clearly defined.
If those entitled initiate the constitutional review of the Ásotthalom decree, the Constitutional Court shall annul the provisions of the decree that violate fundamental rights, furthermore, the Court shall also review its earlier decision, in which it failed to demand the constitutional guarantees of fundamental rights restrictions.
The hideous joke or nightmare at Ásotthalom would not have come into being if the Constitutional Court had done its job properly.
29 November 2016
