The Hungarian Parliament, controlled by the recently elected Prime Minister Péter Magyar, adopted a constitutional amendment to oust President Tamas Sulyok over his ties to former leader Viktor Orbán.
Magyar’s purge of the Hungarian state continued this week as he moves to cement his grip on power in Budapest. While former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán long came in for criticism for an allegedly illiberal governing style, the new wave of changes seem to go far further in cracking down what is now the opposition.
On Monday, the Magyar-controlled parliament backed the 17th amendment of the Fundamental Law, which will require the removal of Tamás Sulyok from his role as President of the Republic, despite the Orbán ally being elected by the National Assembly to a five-year term set to continue until March 2029.
Prime Minister Magyar, who accused Sulyok of being a “puppet” of his predecessor, said that the president will have five days to sign the amendment confirming his ouster, resign from his post, or face impeachment, Portfolio reported.
“We have just experienced a historic vote; with the approval of the amendments by a two-thirds majority, we have begun the constitutional transformation of the Orbán system,” Magyar said.
The 45-year-old prime minister has argued that due to his Tisza Party’s winning just over 55 per cent of the vote in April’s parliamentary elections, they had a mandate to “dismantle” the system and alter the constitution in their own image.
President Sulyok, who has so far refused to step down, has appealed to the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe which examines constitutional matters across the EU to determine whether they are democratic. It has so far refused to comment on the changes sought by Magyar.
In addition to seeking to oust the Hungarian president, the legislation on Monday would also extend term limits to three terms for members of the National Assembly, thereby preventing many longstanding Orbán allies from running in the next election, including Gergely Gulyás, who resigned as the head of the parliamentary party this week as a result and in protest against the constitutional amendment.
This comes after Magyar already imposed term limits for prime ministers, which critics claimed was a law custom-designed to ban Viktor Orbán from returning to power, given there’s one one person the legislation’s retroactive nature would only apply to one person, the former prime minister.
Magyar has also been busy rooting out other allies of Orbán, including shutting down the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Foundation, which funded one of the most prominent right-wing political think tanks in the entire EU, MCC Brussels.
Meanwhile, following pressure from the Magyar government, public broadcaster M1 issued an apology earlier this month for the supposed “propaganda” it aired under Orbán, airing a black screen with the text: “Public media should not lie. We are sorry for doing it for so long. Public media will now be reformed so they will be independent and trustworthy. Our news service is currently suspended. Stay tuned!”