Hungary’s parliament approved a constitutional amendment on Monday to oust President Tamas Sulyok, who Prime Minister Peter Magyar has accused of being a “puppet” of former premier Viktor Orban.
Magyar’s pro-European Union Tisza Party ended the 16-year rule of Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party with a landslide election victory in April.
The legislation to remove the president is part of the new prime minister’s drive to dismantle Orban’s legacy of power, for which he says he received a clear mandate.
Magyar, 45, accused his 63-year-old predecessor of corruption during the election campaign and has taken action to remove numerous political appointees and heads of institutions appointed by Orban.
‘Mandate to Dismantle’ System
“It would be a betrayal of the Hungarian nation if we did not touch this constitution,” Magyar told lawmakers ahead of the vote on the amendment.“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 passed with 139 votes in favor and just six against in the 199-member parliament after Fidesz lawmakers boycotted the parliamentary session.
It cites society’s “serious loss of confidence” in Sulyok, and is designed to end his term immediately, with parliament empowered to elect a new president until a new constitution comes into force, or for a maximum five-year term.
Sulyok says he has no political agenda and has so far refused to step down. He was appointed president by Parliament in 2024, having served for 10 years as a Constitutional Court judge.
Orban and his supporters have accused Magyar of assaulting the rule of law and democratic norms, alleging he is moving toward tyranny.
Last Thursday, thousands of Fidesz supporters held a protest in Budapest over the planned removal of Sulyok. Orban, a longtime ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, promoted the event on social media but did not attend.
Members and sympathizers of the former government party-coalition Fidesz-KDNP attend a demonstration in front of the presidential palace of Budapest to protest the removal of President Tamas Sulyok. Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images, July 9. 2026
Sulyok has five days to sign the new constitutional amendment or parliament will launch an impeachment procedure against him, Magyar said.
Under Hungary’s constitution, the president is a largely ceremonial head of state, although with powers to veto legislation or have it reviewed.
The Tisza party holds a supermajority in parliament, enabling it to modify the constitution and undo Orban’s policies, which it says undermined democracy.
The government last week suspended news broadcasts on public service television and radio last week, which it says will help make public media independent.
Deputies vote on the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law at the plenary session of the parliament in Budapest, Hungary, on July 13, 2026. Robert Hegedus/MTI via AP
‘Violation of Democracy’
Sulyok 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.Sulyok said in a statement, posted to X last week ahead of the vote, that the amendment “violates the principles of the rule of law, democracy and the separation of powers in a number of respects.”
“It is unprecedented in Europe for a sitting President to be removed from office on purely political grounds, in open violation of the constitutional guarantees safeguarding the autonomy of the office of the President, through a provision inserted into the final provisions of an amendment to the Fundamental Law in a manner unmistakably tailored to a specific individual,” Sulyok said.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) wave to the audience during a Day of Friendship event in Budapest, Hungary, on April 7, 2026. Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP
Orban’s Return Blocked
Magyar’s government has already put paid to the prospect of an Orban return by passing an amendment to the Fundamental Law that stipulates the prime minister can serve a maximum of eight years. Monday’s amendment states that all lawmakers can serve a maximum of 12 years.Magyar has accused Sulyok of staying silent when Orban made statements about his political opponents and when his government passed legislation banning an LGBT Pride event.
The amendment will also set up an office aimed at investigating financial abuses which Magyar says happened under Orban’s watch.
The head of Fidesz’s parliamentary group, Gergely Gulyas, resigned on Monday in protest of the amendment, saying it meant he would not be able to run in the next election due to the length of time he has been a member of parliament.
The amendment sets an age limit of 70 for judges sitting on the Constitutional Court, which would require its current head, Orban ally Peter Polt, to retire.
Magyar told a news conference that with the passage of the amendment his government had “started the transformation of the Orban legal system.”
“With this vote today, we have closed an era,” he said. “We asked for and received a completely clear mandate from the Hungarian people to do this.”
After the passing of the legislation, Orban posted a montage on Facebook, including a photograph of Magyar with the subtitle, “Democratic Hungary: 1990-2026,” in reference to the period since Hungary transitioned from communism with the fall of the iron curtain.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance accused the EU of “disgraceful interference” during the Hungarian election campaign, traveling to Budapest to address a rally alongside Orban. Brussels denied the accusation.
Eurosceptic Orban frequently locked horns with the EU on matters including funding for Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, immigration, criminal justice, and gender ideology.
Magyar immediately set about building closer relations with the EU after he took office. The former lawyer founded Tisza in 2024 after spending years in Fidesz as an Orban loyalist.
Since Magyar began adhering to EU policies, Brussels has agreed to unlock 17 billion euros withheld from Hungary in response to Orban’s socially conservative agenda.
Reuters contributed to this report.
