• Premier Peter Magyar accuses Sulyok of being a ‘puppet’ of former PM Viktor Orban• Says new constitution will be drafted with public participation later this year
BUDAPEST: Hungary’s parliament has approved a constitutional amendment on a Monday to oust President Tamas Sulyok, who Prime Minister Peter Magyar says is a “puppet” of former premier Viktor Orban.
The legislation is part of Magyar’s drive to dismantle Orban’s bastions of power, for which he says he received a strong mandate from voters.
Magyar’s centre-right Tisza Party ended the 16-year rule of Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party with a landslide election victory in April. “It would be a betrayal of the Hungarian nation if we did not touch this constitution,” Magyar told parliament ahead of the vote on the amendment, which passed with 139 votes, and six against in the 199-member parliament. “They (Fidesz) arranged the country in such a way that one man’s will became the source of legislative work… The Tisza Party won a clear, huge two-thirds mandate to dismantle this system.”
The amendment would end Sulyok’s term immediately, citing society’s “serious loss of confidence” in him. Parliament would elect a new president until a new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years. Magyar said that in the autumn, a “huge joint project” with the Hungarian people would begin to draft a new constitution. If Sulyok does not sign the new constitutional amendment within five days, Magyar added, parliament will launch an impeachment procedure against him.
