The whole point of democracy is to be ruled by the people. Calling for those who dissent to be cudgeled with serious crimes is essentially a threat Part of the nominal democracy to dictatorship transition involves restricting dissent through abuse of power - like aggressive libel laws to jail those who state inconvenient truths.

That sort of "step toward usurpation" is far more worthy of the label even if it doesn't fit the deliberately narrow formal legal definition.

Compared to exercising their right of who to work for and dealing with perfectly legal partners?