The Hungarian Parliament approved this Monday a constitutional amendment that aims, among other things, to achieve the removal or dismissal of President Tamás Sulyok, whom Prime Minister Péter Magyar calls a “puppet” of the former prime minister, the ultranationalist Viktor Orbán. The amendment was approved by 139 votes in favor and 6 against out of the total 199 seats in the chamber. The Fidesz parliamentarians, Orbán’s party, had been absent in protest.
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This legislation is part of the plan of the conservative head of government Magyar, who defeated Orbán overwhelmingly in the elections last April 12, to dismantle the power elements of the Orbán era. Péter Magyar considers that his party, Tisza, which obtained a two-thirds majority, has thus received a strong mandate from voters in that direction. “It would be a betrayal of the Hungarian nation if we did not amend this Constitution,” Magyar said before the vote.
On the very night of his electoral victory, Magyar called on Tamás Sulyok to resign, but the latter resists. As head of state, he is responsible for signing the new constitutional amendment within five days. If he does not, Magyar warned, Parliament will initiate a dismissal procedure against him, and then elect another president until a new Constitution comes into force, or for a maximum of five years.
The amendment stipulates that parliamentarians may only serve for a maximum of 12 years and also sets an age limit of 70 years for judges of the Constitutional Court. This would force its current president, Péter Polt, an ally of Orbán, to retire. The head of the Fidesz parliamentary group, Gergely Gulyás, resigned during Monday, arguing that this amendment will prevent him from running in the next elections due to his long career as a member of Parliament.
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