BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s government will amend the constitution to remove the country’s president, part of a push by the new Prime Minister Péter Magyar to eliminate officials appointed under former populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Magyar and his Tizsa party won an overwhelming victory in an election in April. With a two-thirds majority in parliament, they can make sweeping changes to the autocratic political system Orbán built over his 16 years in power.
Since his election victory, Magyar has repeatedly called on President Tamás Sulyok, appointed by Orbán’s party, to resign or be removed by constitutional means. Magyar had given Sulyok, whom he repeatedly referred to as “Orbán’s puppet,” a May 31 deadline to leave office.
While mostly a ceremonial role, Hungary’s president is responsible for signing legislation into law and has the power to send bills passed by parliament to the constitutional court for review, raising concerns among supporters of the new government that he could use that power to obstruct its plans.
Magyar held talks with Sulyok at the presidential Sándor Palace on Monday morning. Later, at a news conference, Magyar said the president had refused to resign. He added that he would instruct lawmakers from his party to immediately begin the “necessary procedures” to remove the president, a process he said would take around a month.
“Hungary does not belong to Tamás Sulyok, nor to Viktor Orbán. It doesn’t belong to a single party or political system,” Magyar said. “The constitution states quite clearly that the president showcases the unity of the nation and guards the democratic functioning of the state.”
The prime minister did not give specifics on what kind of constitutional change would be used to remove Sulyok.
Magyar also accused Sulyok of failing to perform his duty on a number of issues, including failing to speak out when Orbán made dehumanizing statements about his political opponents and critics, or when the previous government passed legislation banning the LGBTQ+ Pride event.
“It is in Hungary’s interest that this institution — the office of the president — regain the prestige that has been eroded by its silence and inaction,” Magyar said.
In a video posted on Facebook Monday, the caucus leader of Orbán’s Fidesz party, Gergely Gulyás, said that “in a constitutional democracy, it is not conceivable that a president is forcibly removed … before his term of office ends.”
“If this is the path taken by the new government majority, then we can safely say that it is misusing the authority it was granted,” Gulyás said.
On Friday, Sulyok’s office released a statement that said Magyar’s calls for the president to resign “adversely affect both the constitutional functioning and the authority of the institution of the President of the Republic.”
The statement added that Sulyok had requested a legal assessment of the conflict from the Venice Commission, a group of legal experts with Europe’s top human rights group, part of the Council of Europe.