Hungary PM requests renewed special mandate to fight pandemic

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday asked parliament to extend the government's special rights to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that only vaccinations can allow the government to ease lockdown measures introduced last autumn.

"We want more than just turn the 'Closed' sign on our door. We want to reopen the economy and the entire civic life," he told parliament, adding that Hungary needed vaccines faster than they are available in the European Union, necessitating vaccine imports from China and Russia as well as from the West.