The Hungarian parliament passed a constitutional amendment to oust President Tamas Sulyok.
This comes asHungary‘s newly-voted Prime Minister Peter Magyar continues his push to dismantle the system and influence established by his predecessor, nationalist leader Viktor Orban.
Magyar’s pro-European party Tisza holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, a majority that lets them push through constitutional changes and cancel many of the policies implemented during Orban’s 16-year tenure as Prime Minister.
Why is Sulyok being ousted?
According to Magyar, Sulyok did not fulfil his role by choosing to not interfere with Orban’s antidemocratic steps, with removing Sulyok being one of Magyar’s election campaign promises, bringing Magyar to argue that the majority his party received from the public in the election gives him the mandate to follow up on that promise.
Orban’s party has labeled the amendment an “unprecedented” assault on the country’s democratic order.
After it passed with 139 votes for and six against, Tisza’s elected representatives who were in attendance applauded, while Orban’s party, the far-right Fidesz, boycotted the vote. Orban himself did not attend the vote as he was traveling to the US to watch the World Cup.
The amendment’s official purpose was “restoring rule-of-law democracy.”
What happens next?
Current president Sulyok has five days to sign the amendment, which would mean it enters into force. Should Sulyok not sign it, Magyar’s Tisza said it would launch an impeachment procedure against him.
The Prime Minister held a speech ahead of the vote, telling lawmakers that it was a “significant day in the history of modern Hungary and the transition to democracy.”
Hungary’s presidential role contains a mostly ceremonial meaning, but the president is also responsible for signing legislation into law, with the person in office having the ability to ask the Constitutional Court to review laws passed by parliament.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
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