Hungarian lawmakers are set to vote on changing the constitution on Monday to oust the president, as Prime Minister Péter Magyar pushes to loosen nationalist ex-leader Viktor Orbán’s grip on the country.
Magyar, who won a landslide victory in April on the promise of “regime change” from Orbán’s 16-year rule, has accused unpopular President Tamás Sulyok and other top state officials of being his predecessor’s “puppets.”
His push to remove Sulyok comes as the pro-European conservative rushes to undo the concentration of power that marked Orbán’s self-styled “illiberal” premiership, which won praise from US President Donald Trump but was widely viewed as corrupt.
Orbán’s Fidesz party staged a protest last week, denouncing Magyar’s proposed 12-point amendment as “autocratic,” a charge often levelled against the former leader during his tenure.
But rights watchdogs have also criticised the move.
Amnesty International said Sulyok was “entitled to due process” while Human Rights Watch said the tinkering was “reminiscent of (the) Fidesz era.”
But jurist Andras Baka, a former head of Hungary’s supreme court, said the method is justified if it leads towards a new constitutional order.
“In a country governed by the rule of law such extraordinary measures cannot be used, but Hungary became a captured state under Orbán,” said Baka, whose mandate was cut short in 2011 with a similar legislative act after he expressed concerns about Fidesz’s judicial reforms.
State officials like the president “were appointed not to restrain the government’s power, but to ensure the political survival of the former system even after an electoral defeat,” he told the AFP news agency.
As his Tisza party enjoys a two-thirds majority in parliament, Magyar does not need the opposition’s support to rewrite the constitution.
Voting is scheduled to take place at 18:15 local time if there are no delays.
67% want Sulyok gone
Since winning the election, Magyar has repeatedly called on Sulyok to resign, branding the 70-year-old unworthy of the post as a result of his failure to stand up to Orbán’s divisive rhetoric and attacks on the rule of law.
The president has insisted there is no reason for him to step down, arguing that Magyar’s demands are “incomprehensible” and unconstitutional.
Sulyok also claimed the proposed amendment “violates the principles of the rule of law, democracy and the separation of powers.”
If the amendment passes and the president fails to sign it, Magyar said Tisza would initiate impeachment proceedings against him in parliament.
While Hungary’s president has mainly ceremonial powers, Sulyok can veto laws or send them to the constitutional court for review, but not block a constitutional amendment.
According to a May poll by the 21 Research Centre, 67% of Hungarian voters want him out.
A former head of the constitutional court, he was not well known to the public when he was elected by parliament for a five-year term in 2024.
He replaced fellow Orbán ally Katalin Novak, the first woman to become Hungary’s president, who resigned after she pardoned a man convicted in a child abuse case.
The proposed amendment also includes a 12-year or three-term limit on lawmakers, which would prevent several prominent opposition politicians from running for re-election in 2030.
It would also restore the constitutional court’s power to review budgetary acts and reintroduce a mandatory retirement age of 70 for its judges, reversing a 2013 amendment passed under Orbán.
Four sitting members on the 15-strong tribunal older than 70 would be forced out, including the head of the court, Peter Polt, seen as another Orbán ally.
The amendment also mandates the creation of a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, granting it sweeping powers to combat corruption, which watchdogs saw as endemic under Magyar’s predecessor.
Additional sources • AFP