The Hungarian parliament has voted to remove President Tamás Sulyok from office, a move orchestrated by Prime Minister Péter Magyar's Tisza party. The vote, which passed with a two-thirds majority, also removes Péter Polt, the head of the Constitutional Court. This marks a significant political development since Magyar's party assumed power in early May following a landslide victory that ended Viktor Orbán's 16-year premiership.
President Sulyok has five days to sign the constitutional amendment, which he is seen as instrumental in drafting, or refer it to the Constitutional Court. Prime Minister Magyar has stated that if Sulyok refers the amendment, impeachment proceedings will be initiated, which would automatically suspend him from his duties. Alternatively, the government has urged Sulyok to resign to avert a constitutional crisis.
Deputies from the Fidesz party, now in opposition, walked out of parliament before the vote, labeling the amendment as a tool for building a tyranny. They argue that the amendment grants the government arbitrary power to dismiss public officials immediately. Péter Rona, a former opposition presidential candidate, commented to the BBC that the situation represents Fidesz falling victim to their own political strategies. The 2011 constitution, established under Orbán's government, had promoted a "winner takes all" principle, which Fidesz utilized to fill state positions with loyalists during their tenure from 2010 to 2026.
The amendment also stipulates the removal of Constitutional Court judges over the age of 70 and disqualifies deputies who have served three terms from seeking re-election, a provision that affects more than half of the current Fidesz deputies. András Baka, former head of the Supreme Court, told the BBC that while he agrees with the removal of the president, he noted the difficulty in dismantling the sophisticated authoritarian regime established after 2010, which was designed to persist even after electoral defeat.