Respecting Domestic Democracy and Identity vs. Defending EU Values – The Case of Hungary

There is serious EU law scholarship arguing against defending the EU values towards backsliding Member States, such as Hungary. It is, inter alia, invoking the need to respect domestic democracy and national identity. This paper argues that there is hardly any democracy and genuine national identity left to be respected in Hungary anymore. Its regime of ‘illiberal democracy’ isn’t just illiberal, […], it isn’t democratic either, because the outcome of the elections are not uncertain anymore. The current Hungarian government also abuses the concept of national constitutional identity referred to in Art. 4(2) TEU, justifying non-compliance with the values enshrined in Art 2 TEU by referring to national sovereignty. Since there is neither democracy nor genuine national constitutional identity to respect in Hungary not defending the joint values of the Union means to protect a one-party regime in a Member State, and giving up on the idea of the EU as a community of values.