BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s Parliament voted Monday to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at removing President Tamás Sulyok, part of an effort by the country’s new leadership to dismantle the autocratic political system of former prime minister Viktor Orbán. After winning in a landslide election in April, Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European, center-right Tisza party hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing them to make constitutional changes and roll back many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power. The constitutional amendment, which had the stated purpose of “restoring rule-of-law democracy,” passed with 139 votes for and six against. Tisza lawmakers held a standing ovation after the vote, while lawmakers from Orbán’s far-right Fidesz party boycotted the parliamentary session. Before the vote, Magyar told lawmakers that it marked “a significant day in the history of modern Hungary and the transition to democracy.”
Magyar has argued Sulyok failed to live up to his role as president by neglecting to stand in the way of antidemocratic steps by Orbán’s government. He promised repeatedly to remove Sulyok during the election campaign, and points to his party’s big win as a clear mandate from voters to fulfill that promise.But Fidesz has argued the new constitutional amendment is an “unprecedented” assault on Hungary’s democratic order, and last week staged a protest in opposition to the changes which drew around 3,000 people but which Orbán did not attend.
