Hungary's Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to remove President Tamás Sulyok and begin reversing parts of Viktor Orbán's political system. Prime Minister Péter Magyar's two-thirds parliamentary majority approved a constitutional amendment aimed at removing Tamás Sulyok and revising the former government's legal order.
The amendment passed 139-6 in Hungary's 199-member Parliament on Monday. Magyar's center-right Tisza party won a two-thirds majority in April, giving it power to amend the constitution. Lawmakers from Orbán's Fidesz party boycotted the session.
Sulyok has five days to sign the amendment, and Tisza has threatened impeachment if he refuses. Magyar described the action as the start of transforming the Orbán legal system. Orbán governed for 16 years and used supermajorities to entrench legal and institutional changes. Sulyok's critics say he failed to resist democratic erosion, while removal of a president remains a major constitutional step.
The vote tests whether a government elected to restore institutional checks can make rapid constitutional changes without reproducing the concentrated power it promised to dismantle. Hungary's transition illustrates a recurring democratic problem: repairing rules that enabled executive dominance may require decisive action, yet concentrated remedial power can itself weaken checks. The most informative measures will be transparent procedures, independent appointments and limits that bind the new majority too.
Election mandates confer authority but do not eliminate the need for procedural restraint and review. The amendment had not yet taken legal effect, and the pace, scope and judicial treatment of further reforms remained uncertain. That distinction matters because a current report should not turn an unresolved point into a conclusion.
Watch whether Sulyok signs, resigns or faces impeachment proceedings. Watch how the EU and Hungarian courts assess the next institutional reforms. Those developments will show whether today's action changes durable conditions or remains an announcement whose practical effects are still incomplete.