Vienna, July 18 (EFE).- Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok announced Saturday that he had signed the constitutional amendment that will bring his term to an end on Monday, despite considering the amendment an “abuse of political power.»
»With a single sentence, this amendment terminates the mandate of the sitting President of the Republic. That sentence joins the ranks of those forced Gordian-knot fixes that will remain for posterity as grave and shameful historical examples of abuse of political power,” Sulyok, a politician linked to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, stated in a video.
Parliament Speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer will assume presidential duties on an interim basis until a new head of state is appointed.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, a conservative, had already promised during the April parliamentary elections’ campaign that if he came to power, he would dismantle the “Orbán system,” which included the removal of the president and other high-ranking officials.
Magyar won the elections by a wide margin, ending 16 consecutive years of rule by the ultra-nationalist Orbán, but removing the head of state required amending the Constitution.
