BUDAPEST, Hungary — A dramatic chapter of Hungarian political transition drew to a close Saturday when outgoing President Tamás Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment that formally terminates his term in office, wrapping up a bitter standoff between Sulyok — an appointee of long-ruling former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — and the new administration led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
Magyar, whose center-right, pro-European Tisza Party secured a landslide election victory over Orbán’s long-standing government in April, made Sulyok’s removal a top priority after taking office in May. The new prime minister has framed the ouster of Sulyok and other Orbán-aligned officials as a necessary purge to dismantle what he calls Orbán’s autocratic “mafia state.” Magyar repeatedly called on Sulyok to step down, arguing the president failed to uphold his constitutional duty by failing to check anti-democratic policies advanced during Orbán’s 12-year tenure.
When Sulyok refused to resign voluntarily, Magyar’s parliamentary majority pushed through the constitutional amendment earlier this week, a measure that mandated the immediate end of Sulyok’s presidency. The legislation gave Sulyok five days to sign the amendment into law, and he acted on the final day of that window to put the measure into effect.
In a video posted to Facebook Saturday evening, Sulyok — who Magyar repeatedly labeled Orbán’s political puppet — pushed back against his removal, saying the forced end to his term served as “lasting proof that the fundamental values of a free society, the rule of law, democracy, the principle of power-sharing, have been trampled on in the interest of power.”
Sulyok’s term will officially end at midnight on Monday. Following the vacancy, Parliament Speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer will assume presidential duties on an acting basis, until Hungarian lawmakers elect a permanent new president within a constitutionally mandated 30-day window. Magyar announced Saturday he would convene his party caucus on Monday to discuss the Tisza Party’s nomination for the new head of state.
Sulyok’s removal is just the latest step in Magyar’s sweeping campaign to remove Orbán-era political appointees and undo the institutional changes implemented during his predecessor’s decade-plus rule. Since taking power in May, the new government has suspended the news division of state-owned public television and radio — which Magyar accuses of operating as a propaganda arm for Orbán’s ruling party — and dissolved the controversial Sovereignty Protection Office, a body Orbán’s opponents have long condemned as a tool to harass government critics and muzzle independent media outlets.
Beyond ending Sulyok’s term, the constitutional amendment approved this week includes a package of broader governance reforms: it introduces new judicial oversight changes, establishes a special office tasked with investigating allegations of financial corruption and abuse during the Orbán administration, and enshrines a 12-year term limit for members of parliament into the national constitution.
Orbán, who led Hungary for 12 years before his election defeat, reacted sharply to Sulyok’s signing of the amendment Saturday. In a Facebook post, the former prime minister warned that “tyranny is no longer a threat, but a reality.” He added, “If this could be done to the president of the republic, then tomorrow no one will be safe.”
But Magyar framed the amendment’s passage as a landmark win for Hungarian democratic renewal. In his own Saturday Facebook video statement, the prime minister argued that by approving the amendment, “we have fulfilled several of our important commitments and returned what the Orbán regime tried to take away from the Hungarian people for many years.”