the rule of law as a criterion for europe 291 tween authorities and inhabitants in the old and new member states; the question about trust is above all important in the cooperation within the European Union.’11 What was then a criterion for membership is today a criterion in a new and – at the time of the expansion of the union – unexpected way. TheRechtsstaat is seriously threatened in, for example, Hungary and Poland.12 Remembering that the Rechtsstaat in a material sense in Mohl’s version was closely tied to the liberal movement, pleading for the liberty of the citizen, it can be noted that the Hungarian prime minister Victor Orbán, in 2014 explicitly set out to construct Hungary as an illiberal or non-liberal state, saying that ‘the Hungarian nation is not simply a group of individuals but a community that must be organised, reinforced and in fact constructed. And so in this sense the new state that we are constructing in Hungary is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state. It does not reject the fundamental principles of liberalism such as freedom, and I could list a few more, but it does not make this ideology the central element of state organisation, but instead includes a different, special, national approach.’13 In 2019, he added that ‘the illiberal or national viewpoint states that the nation is a historically and culturally determined community. It is a historically developed configuration, which must protect its members and prepare them to stand their ground in the world for a common cause. According to the liberal view, individual action and who does what – whether they live a productive or unproductive life—is a purely private matter, and must not be subject to moral judgment. By contrast, in a national system, action – individual action – is worthy of praise if it also benefits the community.’14 11 Letto-Vanamo 2002, 90–1: ‘Es geht um das Vertrauen zwischen Behörden und Einwohnern der–alten und kommenden–Mitgliedstaaten. Die Frage des Vertrauens aktualisiert sich vor allem in der EU-Zusammenarbeit.’ 12 For Poland, see Wojciech Sadurski, Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown(Oxford:OUP, 2019); see also, for example, Dunja Mijatović, ‘The independence of judges and the judiciary under threat’, Council of Europe, 3 Sept. 2019, www.coe.int/en. 13 ‘Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speech at the 25th Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp’, 26 July 2014, Tusnádfürdő(Băile Tuşnad), www.kormany.hu/en. 14 ‘Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the 30th Bálványos Summer Open University and Student Camp’, 27 July 2019, Tusnádfürdő(Băile Tuşnad), www.kormany.hu/en.
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