Hungary plans to withdraw citizenship: government critics in danger!

Hungary plans to withdraw citizenship: government critics in danger!

Ungarn, Land - The Hungarian government plans to temporarily withdraw Hungarian citizenship. This emerges from a current draft law, which was submitted by a member of the government party by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in parliament, as reported

Critics of the law fear that this is a repressive means of suppressing government critics. The regulation stipulates that citizenship status can be temporarily “lifted” for a period of up to ten years, which is internationally unusual. Usually a citizenship is permanently withdrawn or it is dispensed with.

The measure is primarily aimed at double citizens, whose second citizenship does not come from an EU country or Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Iceland. For example, Hungarian-American dual citizens who are active in human rights organizations could be affected, such as The ZEIT supplemented.

Another critical aspect of this regulation is the potential exclusion from the country, since the “abolition” of citizenship could result in the person concerned from Hungary. Hungarian citizens, on the other hand, cannot be reported from the country, which underlines the injustice of the measure.

context of human rights in Hungary

Development in Hungary is in the context of a comprehensive decline in human rights and the rule of law that has been observed for years. As Amnesty International , basic values of the European Union are increasingly threatened, especially in Hungary and Poland. The Hungarian government has massively strengthened control over the media and judiciary in recent years and has severely restricted minorities.

critical organizations, including the Hungarian section of Amnesty International, see themselves circumcised by numerous legal measures in their work. This has led to a worrying climate in which the freedom of expression and independence of the judiciary are repeatedly attacked.

The latest developments related to citizenship are another signal for how profound the changes in Hungary are. The EU reacts to this trend by withdrawing certain funding or freezing, which could further exacerbate the precarious conditions in the country.