Hungary’s parliament voted to impeach the president in the latest anti-Orban campaign | Human Rights Issues

Hungary’s parliament will approve reforms that would remove President Sulyok, appointed by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Hungary’s parliament has approved a constitutional amendment to remove President Tamas Sulyok from his presidency, the latest move to curb the power of figures linked to former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The act, passed on Monday with 139 votes in favor and six against, could end Sulyok’s term in office and pave the way for parliament to elect a new president.

Hungarians voted for right-wing Orban in April, while new Prime Minister Peter Magyar of the Tisza Party won a landslide victory. The election results ended 16 years of rule by Orban’s Fidesz party, which had been in power in most parts of the country.

Since the Magyar victory, they have tried to destroy the power, including removing the current president. The amendment also introduces judicial reforms, creates a commission to investigate alleged financial abuses by the previous government, and imposes a 12-year term on lawmakers.

Sulyok now has five days to sign the changes to the law passed by the parliament. Magyar has said that the parliament will set up a process to remove Sulyok if he does not sign.

The president and other members of Fidesz boycotted the parliamentary session on Monday.

Sweeping the old system

The the parliament appointed Sulyokformer head of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, in February 2024. He was appointed to replace Katalin Novak, who resigned after pardoning a man convicted of concealing child abuse.

But just days after Magyar’s center-right Tisza party won a two-thirds majority in parliament in April, the new prime minister declared Sulyok “unfit to unite Hungary” and ordered him to step down after the new government was formed.

In June, after the deadline to resign, Magyar called the president Orban’s “puppet” and promised to remove him and others from office by legal means. A few weeks later, he uncovered a reform program, called “Operation Cleansing Fire”, which aims to implement a new law, remove public institutions and establish an anti-corruption office.

Although the presidency is a symbolic role, it has the power to approve laws and can refer them to the Constitutional Court for review, raising fears that Sulyok may use his presidential powers to thwart Tisza’s reform demands.