Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has moved to strip the country’s president of office, tabling a constitutional amendment that the Hungarian Government intended to push through parliament on July 13.
The measure would end President Tamás Sulyok’s term immediately, citing a “serious loss of confidence” in the head of state.
Magyar, whose Tisza party won a landslide in the April election and ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule, has repeatedly branded Sulyok a “puppet” of the former prime minister.
Tisza holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, allowing it to rewrite the constitution without opposition support.
Voting was scheduled for 5.15pm local time, with Magyar due to address lawmakers beforehand.
Sulyok, a former head of the constitutional court appointed under Orbán’s party in 2024, has refused to resign. He described the calls for his departure as “incomprehensible” and unconstitutional.
The president has referred the plan to the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe body that advises on whether constitutional changes meet democratic standards.
Should the amendment pass and Sulyok decline to sign it within five days, Magyar said his party would launch impeachment proceedings against him.
The overhaul reaches well beyond the presidency. It would cap lawmakers’ terms at 12 years, a change that would bar several opposition figures from standing again in 2030.
It would also restore the constitutional court’s power to review budget laws and reinstate a mandatory retirement age of 70 for its judges, reversing a 2013 measure passed under Orbán.
Orbán’s Fidesz, now the main opposition, staged a protest on July 9 in support of Sulyok, denouncing the plan as autocratic.
Fidesz parliamentary group leader Gergely Gulyás said the move marked the end of constitutional democracy.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, both long-standing critics of Orbán, also questioned the process, arguing it sidestepped the impeachment route and rule-of-law safeguards.
A May survey by the 21 Research Center found 67 per cent of Hungarian voters wanted Sulyok gone. The president was elected by parliament for a five-year term in 2024, having been little known to the public.
For years Orbán clashed with the European Union over rule-of-law standards. Similar concerns are now being raised in Brussels about his successor.
