New summary produced by Claude AI
The Hungarian parliament approved a constitutional amendment on Monday to remove President Tamás Sulyok and Constitutional Court head Péter Polt from their positions. Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, which holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority, passed the 17th amendment despite opposition from the now-minority Fidesz party, whose deputies walked out in protest before the vote.
Sulyok has five days to sign the amendment or challenge it by referring the matter to the Constitutional Court. Should he pursue the latter option, Magyar has indicated that impeachment proceedings would follow, automatically suspending Sulyok from office. The government has also encouraged Sulyok to resign voluntarily to prevent a constitutional crisis.
Fidesz representatives contend that the amendment grants the government excessive power to arbitrarily remove public officials with immediate effect. The now-opposition party argues that the legislation violates principles of democratic governance and represents the kind of institutional capture they themselves had been accused of perpetrating during their time in power.
The amendment comprises a broader legislative package designed to temporarily govern the country while a new constitution is drafted over the next two to three years. Beyond Sulyok’s removal, the amendment requires Constitutional Court judges over 70 to step down and prohibits deputies who have served three parliamentary terms from seeking reelection—a provision affecting more than half of current Fidesz deputies.
The Tisza party deputies responded to the vote results with a standing ovation. The legislative action represents a significant moment for Magyar’s government, which assumed office in early May following its landslide election victory on 12 April against former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party after 16 years of their governance. Orbán has largely withdrawn from public view since the electoral defeat and was absent from parliament on Monday.