By Krisztina Than
BUDAPEST, July 13 (Reuters) – Hungary’s parliament has approved a constitutional amendment on Monday to oust President Tamas Sulyok, who Prime Minister Peter Magyar says is a “puppet” of former premier Viktor Orban.
The legislation is part of Magyar’s drive to dismantle Orban’s bastions of power, for which he says he received a strong mandate from voters. Magyar’s centre-right Tisza Party ended the 16-year rule of Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party with a landslide election victory in April.
“It would be a betrayal of the Hungarian nation if we did not touch this constitution,” Magyar told parliament ahead of the vote on the amendment, which passed with 139 votes, and six against in the 199-member parliament.
“They (Fidesz) arranged the country in such a way that one man’s will became the source of legislative work… The Tisza Party won a clear, huge two-thirds mandate to dismantle this system.”
The amendment would end Sulyok’s term immediately, citing society’s “serious loss of confidence” in him. Parliament would elect a new president until a new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years.
Magyar said that in the autumn, a “huge joint project” with the Hungarian people would begin to draft a new constitution.
If Sulyok does not sign the new constitutional amendment within five days, Magyar added, parliament will launch an impeachment procedure against him.
DISMANTLING ORBAN’S BASTIONS OF POWER
Under Hungary’s constitution, the president is a largely ceremonial head of state with only limited powers to veto legislation or have it reviewed.
Magyar’s party Tisza has a supermajority in parliament, which enables it to modify the constitution and roll back changes by Orban that it says eroded democracy. It has taken swift action, suspending news broadcasts on public service television and radio last week as part of an overhaul to make public media independent.
Sulyok, who served for 10 years as a Constitutional Court judge until parliament appointed him president in 2024, said he has no political agenda and has so far refused to step down.
He has asked for an assessment of the government’s amendment from the Venice Commission, a panel of the Council of Europe human rights body, which gives advice on whether constitutional changes are democratic. The Venice Commission has declined comment.
Last Thursday Orban’s party held a protest in support of Sulyok. Orban did not take part.
Fidesz lawmakers boycotted Monday’s parliamentary session.
The amendment stipulates that lawmakers can only serve a maximum of 12 years, and it also sets an age limit of 70 for judges at the Constitutional Court. This would require its current head, Orban ally Peter Polt, to retire.
The head of Fidesz’s parliamentary group, Gergely Gulyas, resigned on Monday over the amendment, saying it meant he could not run in the next election due to the length of time he has been a member of parliament.
(Reporting by Krisztina ThanEditing by Gareth Jones)
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