Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has agreed to step down after parliament approved a constitutional amendment removing him from office, ending a political standoff that followed the country’s recent change of government.
Sulyok confirmed he would sign the amendment before the constitutional deadline, bringing his presidency to an end at midnight on Sunday.
The amendment was pushed through parliament by Prime Minister PĂ©ter Magyar’s Tisza party, which came to power in April after defeating the long-ruling administration of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The government argued that Sulyok, widely regarded as an ally of Orbán, had lost public confidence and should leave office.
Although he agreed to the amendment, Sulyok criticised the government’s action, accusing it of undermining Hungary’s constitutional order.
In a statement, he said “The amendment represented a breaking point in Hungarian constitutional democracy and claimed that the core values of a free society have been trampled underfoot for the sake of political power.”
The constitutional amendment, passed with an overwhelming majority on Monday, formally ends Sulyok’s tenure on the grounds of a serious loss of confidence.
The legislation also removes the head of Hungary’s Constitutional Court and bars lawmakers who have served three parliamentary terms from seeking re-election, a provision affecting more than half of the current legislators from Orbán’s Fidesz party.
Orbán condemned the amendment as an act of tyranny and urged supporters to protest.
His Fidesz party has struggled since its heavy electoral defeat in April, with the former prime minister keeping a low public profile and declining to take his parliamentary seat.
Having governed Hungary from 2010 until 2026, Fidesz used its parliamentary supermajority to reshape state institutions and appoint loyalists to key public offices.
Following the vote, members of the governing Tisza party applauded the amendment’s passage, while former Hungarian Supreme Court president András Baka defended the decision.
Baka told reporters. “I quite agree with the removal of the president.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
