Hungary’s President Sulyok Agrees to Resign After Parliament’s Vote
Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has agreed to step down, signing an amendment to the country’s constitution which will end his presidency at midnight on Sunday.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, after winning a landslide victory in April, used its parliamentary majority to pass the law that ousts Sulyok – a figure long seen as a loyalist to former prime minister Viktor Orbán, who lost power in the April elections.
Sulyok had five days to sign the amendment or face a protracted constitutional crisis and impeachment proceedings. He finally signed the change on Saturday evening as the deadline approached, but accusations of a rule‑of‑law violation were hurled at the government in his statement.
The amendment will remove not only Sulyok from office, but also the head of the Constitutional Court, Péter Polt. It will further strip judges over seventy of their positions and bar deputies who have served three terms from standing again – a restriction that affects more than half of the current Fidesz deputies.
This move marks the latest and most dramatic change by the Tisza government, which has aggressively pursued a range of constitutional reforms since taking power. Former leader Viktor Orbán has condemned the amendment as an act of tyranny and called for protests.
Since the April defeat, Orbán’s party has weakened, with the former prime minister rarely appearing in public and refusing to take his parliamentary seat.
