MORE CHANGES:
The amendment also imposed a 12-year term limit for lawmakers and set up an office to investigate financial abuses under the previous government
Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok on Saturday signed a constitutional amendment into law that ends his term in office, bringing to a close a dispute between him and the country’s new government that was seeking to oust him as part of a purge of officials appointed during the reign of former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who defeated Orban in a blowout election in April, had repeatedly called on Sulyok to resign, saying he had failed to live up to his role as president by neglecting to stand in the way of antidemocratic steps by Orban’s government.When Sulyok refused, lawmakers with Magyar’s pro-European, center-right Tisza party passed a constitutional amendment this week that called for an immediate end to his term. Sulyok had five days to sign the amendment into law, which he did on the final day before the deadline.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar, second row, center, speaks during a plenary session of the Hungarian National Assembly in Budapest on May 12.
Sulyok said being made to sign the amendment was “lasting proof that the fundamental values of a free society, the rule of law, democracy, the principle of power-sharing, have been trampled on in the interest of power.”Sulyok’s term ends at midnight. Hungarian National Assembly Speaker Agnes Forsthoffer would assume his duties until lawmakers elect a new president, a task which has a 30-day deadline.
