Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok has signed a constitutional amendment passed by Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s ruling Tisza party, bringing his tenure as head of state to an immediate end.
Sulyok announced the decision in a statement on Saturday, saying he had no option but to approve the legislation because it complied with the constitutional process, although he warned that the amendment undermined Hungary’s rule of law.
The legislation forms part of Magyar’s broader effort to dismantle institutions established during former Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16 years in power. Magyar has argued that his government secured a strong public mandate for the reforms after defeating Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party in a landslide election victory in April.
The amendment states that Sulyok’s presidency ends immediately, citing what it described as society’s “serious loss of confidence” in a president elected in early 2024 by lawmakers from the Fidesz party.
“The seventeenth amendment to the Constitution has marked a watershed in Hungary’s constitutional democracy,” Sulyok said.
“By removing public office holders in a manner that openly violates the rule of law … it sets a negative precedent that inflicts a deep wound on the constitutional values of democracy, the separation of powers, and the rule of law.”
Orban condemned the reform, describing it as an attack on democratic institutions.
“Tyranny is no longer a threat but reality. If this could be done to the President, tomorrow, no one will be safe,” he said in a Facebook post.
Under the amendment, Parliament, where the centre-right Tisza party holds a two-thirds majority, will elect a new president to serve until a new constitution comes into force or for a maximum term of five years.
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Following Sulyok’s approval of the legislation, Magyar announced that Parliament Speaker Agnes Forsthoffer would serve as interim president from Monday.
“With these decisions, we are restoring something that the Orban regime spent many years trying to take away from the Hungarian people,” Magyar said.
“The certainty that power can be constrained, that public assets can be recovered, and that the state can once again serve its citizens, free Hungarian citizens.”
The constitutional amendment also introduces a 12-year term limit for lawmakers and sets a mandatory retirement age of 70 for Constitutional Court judges, a measure that will require Constitutional Court President Peter Polt, an ally of Orban, to step down.
Since taking office after April’s election, Magyar has repeatedly called on Sulyok to resign, accusing him of failing to act as a unifying national figure and of advancing the interests of Orban and his former government.
