Think-tank: Revival of historical term for county to restore tradition to legal system

Mate Kocsis, parliamentary group leader of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, on Tuesday submitted a constitutional amendment proposal to parliament which would bring back the term used for county as an administrative district which applied before 1949.

The abolishment of the historical county system under the communist dictatorship dismantled Hungary’s constitutional order and ended its independence for a long time, the think-tank said.

Though Hungary’s first democratically elected government made an attempt to restore the historical term for county in 1990, this was thwarted by “the post-communist forces” and the now-defunct Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), they added.

The old county system dates back to the rule of St. Stephen, Hungary’s first Christian king, and is a symbol of sovereignty, constitutionality and freedom, later becoming “the cradle of civic-national culture” in the country’s reform era, the centre said.