It's a little scary how some leaders are using this pandemic to grab power. Even Canada's PM tried to grant himself emergency powers that went a little too far. He had to back down because he controls a minority of seats and the other parties noticed what had been snuck into an emergency bill [1].<p>If this almost happened in Canada, we should expect there will be a lot of countries where citizens will have to make noise to ensure emergency powers don't become permanent powers.<p>[1]<a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/liberals-to-back-off-on-broad-spending-powers-without-oversight-in-emergency-funding-bill-1.4865204" rel="nofollow">https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/liberals-to-back-off-...</a>
The scariest thing to me about this pandemic is not leaders and governments doing this. In some ways it's to be expected.<p>What terrifies me, is how eager I was at the start of this pandemic for the government to lock me and my fellow citizens in their homes. We have drones policing in Wales now, shouting "stay inside to save lives". And April fools jokes have been forbidden.<p>Not even George Orwell ever imagined such a perfect scenario. Fear is really powerful, specially against such a strange enemy, one we can't see.
Well, people are so lucky to have such a leader leading in these times. I say do away with elections too, why take chances? /s<p>Power is aphrodisiac and a lot of these "emergency" powers will stay, one way or another. Hard term limits, of 8 years, should be mandatory for everyone. Will not solve everything, but better than nothing.<p>In a lot of countries they rule be decree anyway. The leader control everything, the party, the parliament and eventually courts. So while the parliament passed it, actually one person and his close circle decided it.<p>They get everyone on their side with Plata o plomo...a share of corruption money or you have the entire state on your back.
Recall that the Patriot act after 911 was a veritable Trojan horse of new governmental powers having nothing to do with terrorism and it's success paves the way for the 2020 pandemic power grabs.
Although Orban already had aspirations of being a long term dictator after Xi and Putin, it hits really close to home when a country inside the EU decides to do that. Apparently the world is becoming some kind of Absurdistan.
Hi HN mods,<p>I don't want leave unrelated comments. But I have genuine question here.<p>Why is this article allowed to stay up on Hacker News and be open for discussion ? How is this related to hacker news or hacker/tech culture ?<p>Is it worrying that Hugary's PM is grabbing authoritarian powers? Sure. Does this have wide implications for Europe? Sure.<p>But if this article is allowed to stay up. Then why was the post about the House Intelligence Committee Report on FISA Abuses nuked from the front-page last February ?<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16292336" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16292336</a><p>One would think, illegally spying on a US presidential campaign is pretty worrying as well (its a bi-partisan issue, that could affect both parties, so put down your pitchforks). In fact, such event could undo the underpinnings of the US democracy. A pretty important topic to discuss I'd say.