On 26th May, the Hungarian voters will elect 21 members of the European Parliament. In October, voters will vote on members of local government.

The State Audit Office (SAO) is again in action: this year the Democratic Coalition (DK), Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), Momentum and Parbeszed were put on the stand. It is dangerous and illegal what the SAO does. Prior to the EP Elections, the SAO again used procedures on opposition parties, during which the general public is not informed about the background of the cases and which do not provide legal remedies against the sanctions.

The government has submitted an amendment proposal that would exclude protests from the most important, symbolic public squares of Budapest during national holidays. Furthermore, it would empower local governments to remove further areas a no-protest zone.

Freedom House published this year's evaluation examining post-socialist countries on Tuesday. The report, Nations in Transit 2015, reclassifies Hungary from the category "Consolidated Democracies" to "Semi-Consolidated Democracies." The Washington-based international watchdog organization examined 29 countries (in Central Europe, the Balkans and the member states of the former Soviet Union) during last year. In the report, Hungary ranked 8th among 29 countries, finishing behind Slovakia and ahead of Bulgaria.

More:

https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/nations-transit-2015#.VYp-G-2qqkp

The Hungarian government has failed to reach a satisfactory agreement on compensation with nine disenfranchised churches, leaving the matter to the European Court of Human Rights to decide.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is representing the gay dating site melegrandi.hu in proceedings before the Equal Treatment Authority. The site was going to place ads on buses managed by the Budapest Transport Company (BKV), but was denied by the company responsible for BKV's advertisements, claiming that advertising regulations prohibit ads that threaten the moral development of children and minors. HCLU says this interpretation is totally missing the point of the concerned paragraph of Hungary's advertisement law, and the denial constitutes an infringement of equal treatment rights.More:http://tasz.hu/hirek/tasz-kepviseli-melegrandihu-t