Hungary and Europe: Salami tactics THE Venice Commission has pronounced on Hungary's constitutional changes - and its verdict is damning. The commission, which advises the Council of Europe on constitutional matters, criticises laws on judicial reform, on media oversight and on state recognition of churches. The new National Judicial Authority draws most fire. Few doubt that Hungary's legal system needs an overhaul. But no other country has a system as centralised as Hungary's, says the commission. The head of the authority can pick judges, including replacements for those just forced into retirement, and has a nine-year mandate. It does not help that Tunde Hando, the incumbent, is the wife of a prominent MEP from the ruling right-wing Fidesz party. The office wields too much power for one person, says Thorbjorn Jagland, the Council of Europe's secretary-general. The 47-member council is often overshadowed by the European Union. But Mr Jagland's opinions matter to Hungary. The council's rulings on legal, media and religious reforms feed into the EU's assessment of Hungary's compliance with European law. Hungary wants a €20 billion ($26.5 billion) standby loan from the IMF, which must be signed off by the EU. Mr Jagland is in close touch with José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. This month EU finance ministers suspended €495m of cohesion funds, saying that Hungary would not hit its 2013 deficit target. The decision caused outrage in Budapest, as 23 of the 27 EU members have missed targets in the past but Hungary is the first to be penalised. Relations soured again after Viktor Orban, the prime minister, gave a blistering speech on March 15th, a national holiday marking the failed 1848 revolution. He told a cheering 200,000-strong crowd that Hungary would not be a "colony." He compared EU officials to "finely tailored suits" with their Soviet predecessors wearing "a uniform with shoulder patches." Mr Barroso's spokeswoman snapped back that Mr Orban did not understand democracy. Such talk certainly will not attract the foreign investment Hungary badly needs, notes a Western official. Yet behind the scenes Mr Orban and his government are more amenable. There is one voice for the loyal masses, another for the dreaded men in suits. It was Hungarian ministers who invited the Venice Commission to examine their contentious legislation in the first place. Laws on the media and churches have already been relaxed. And the government has submitted revisions to laws on judicial reform that would reduce some of Ms Hando's powers. More bad news comes in a report by Transparency International, an anti-corruption NGO. Fidesz has made much of its promises to break the grip of the Socialists" business networks. But, says the report, one set of Magyar minigarchs has simply been replaced by another; Hungary has been captured by "powerful interest groups." The government insists it is taking "intensive measures" against sleaze. Anti-corruption commissioners will start work soon. All planned laws will be assessed. A good place to start would be public procurement. Transparency International says that 65-75% of tenders are affected by corruption. This only fuels support for the far-right Jobbik party, as more voters come to believe that Fidesz and its friends, just like their Socialist predecessors, have carved up Hungary among themselves as if it were a giant salami.