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.
Recall that Hungary’s parliament voted decisively on Monday, July 13, to strip President Tamás Sulyok of his office, approving a constitutional amendment by 139 votes to six that would immediately bring an end to Sulyok’s term in office and pave the way for parliament to elect a new president.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party swept to power in an April landslide that ended 16 years of power for Orban’s Fidesz party , had long pushed for Sulyok’s removal, arguing his election victory gave him a mandate to clear out officials seen as loyal to former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Sulyok, elected by parliament in February 2024 as a former chief of Hungary’s Constitutional Court , had resisted the pressure for weeks and sought review from both the Constitutional Court and the Venice Commission over concerns about the process.
Under the amendment, Sulyok had five days to sign it himself; if he refused, parliament was set to launch impeachment proceedings against him, with the parliamentary speaker empowered to sign the legislation in his place.
Reports indicated that until the middle of last week it appeared he would reluctantly sign the amendment and thus his own dismissal , before Fidesz allies urged him to defy that course.
The move is part of a broader campaign by Magyar’s government, in office since May, to dismantle what he has called Orbán’s “economic and political mafia”.
The same amendment also imposes a 12-year term limit on lawmakers, sets a mandatory retirement age for Constitutional Court judges, and creates a new body to investigate financial abuses from the Orbán era.
Critics, including some human rights groups, have questioned the manner of Sulyok’s removal even while agreeing with its goal, while Fidesz has denounced the purge as authoritarian overreach. Once Sulyok’s mandate formally ends, parliament will have 30 days to elect a successor to serve until a new constitution is adopted.
