Hungary’s parliamentary opposition parties slammed a ruling by the Constitutional Court declaring the lawfulness of amendments to the labour code and legislation on the establishment of administrative courts approved by parliament on Dec. 12.

The opposition Socialist and allied Párbeszéd parties said they would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the ruling. At a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court building, Socialist MP Ildikó Bangó Borbély said that the court “filled with Fidesz party soldiers” had ruled against Hungarian employees and in favour of the government. Párbeszéd MP Bence Tordai accused the court of cowardice for separating complaints about the voting procedure from objections to the content of the Dec. 12 bills and declining to discuss the latter.

The opposition nationalist Jobbik party said that “if Fidesz wants to stab a nation in the back, it can.” Péter Jakab, the party’s deputy group leader, said in a statement that the Constitutional Court’s findings raised the question of “whom the court wants to please by aiding the illegal enslavement of a nation and the elimination of democracy”.

The leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) called the court’s ruling “outrageous”. Gergely Arató, DK’s deputy group leader, said in a statement that his party would continue to protest the “slave law”. Arató criticised the court, saying that “instead of a Fidesz-run Fundamental Law Court, true patriots need an independent body that safeguards the preservation of law and justice with dignity.”