By Tsarizm Staff | April 1, 2020

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was handed emergency powers to rule by decree during the Chinese coronavirus outbreak by parliament earlier this week.

The bill approved by the nationalist government givens Orban the right to rule by decree, without having to consult lawmakers or other branches of government. It overwhelmingly passed 138 votes in favor with 53 against — easily pastthe required two-thirds majority, reported Zero Hedge.

“When this emergency ends, we will give back all powers, without exception,” declared the Prime Minister.

“Changing our lives is now unavoidable,” according to prior statements. “Everyone has to leave their comfort zone. This law gives the government the power and means to defend Hungary.”

As a result, the bill criminalizes any attempts to stop the Hungarian government fighting the outbreak, including the spreading of false information, which could be punishable with a prison sentence of up to five years, wrote CNBC.

“The Hungarian government’s primary concern during the coronavirus pandemic is the protection of human lives,” a spokesperson for the Hungarian government told CNBC via email Tuesday.

One of Orban’s first acts under the emergency powers was to roll back trans activist agenda advances in recent years.

His powers came into effect on Monday morning, and by the evening his deputy Zsolt Semjén had introduced a new bill which, if passed, will replace “gender” with “birth sex” in all legal documents issued in the country. The effect of this is that Hungarian citizens will be unable to change their gender legally, a significant rollback of rights in the eastern European country, reported Pink News.

The explanatory memorandum of the bill states that current legislation does not define “gender” as it is determined biologically, adding: “The gender entered into the civil registry is based on facts determined by doctors, declared by the registry.” It further states: “Given that completely changing one’s biological gender is impossible, it is necessary to lay it down in law that it cannot be changed in the civil registry either.”

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This piece originally appeared on Tsarizm.com and is used by permission.

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