Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has agreed to step down, signing a constitutional amendment that will end his presidency at midnight on Sunday. The move caps a dramatic confrontation between the incumbent and a parliament now controlled by Prime Minister Péter Magyar's Tisza party, which swept to power after Viktor Orbán's long rule ended in April.
“A breaking point in Hungarian constitutional democracy.” — outgoing President Tamás Sulyok
Sulyok, widely seen as a loyalist of former prime minister Orbán, had five days to sign the amendment or risk a protracted constitutional crisis and impeachment. As the deadline passed on Saturday evening he confirmed he would accept the change, but in a statement accused Magyar's government of violating the rule of law, calling the amendment a "breaking point in Hungarian constitutional democracy."
The 17th amendment, passed with an overwhelming majority on Monday, ends the president's term citing a "serious loss of confidence" in him. It also removes the head of the Constitutional Court and forbids lawmakers who have served three terms from standing again, a provision that applies to more than half the current deputies from Orbán's Fidesz party.
Orbán had described the amendment as an act of tyranny and called for protests, but since the April election Fidesz has been in free fall, reeling from a shock defeat. Orbán himself has rarely been seen in public and refused to take his seat in parliament. In office from 2010 until 2026, Fidesz reshaped the Hungarian state and filled supposedly independent posts with party loyalists using its two-thirds majority.
The 141 Tisza deputies gave a standing ovation when the vote passing the amendment was announced. Afterward, András Baka, former head of Hungary's Supreme Court, told the BBC he "quite agree[s] with the removal of the president." The episode signals how thoroughly the new government intends to dismantle the institutional legacy of its predecessor.
Tisza has swept through major constitutional changes since its landslide April victory, viewing Sulyok as a puppet of the old order. The speed and scope of the reforms suggest a determined effort to consolidate democratic accountability, even as opponents warn that removing checks and balances can cut both ways in Hungarian politics.
Sulyok's departure at midnight closes the confrontation's first act; the deeper question — how far a new majority may go in unmaking its predecessor's state — remains open.
Removing a president by constitutional amendment is technically legal and politically corrosive in equal measure. Tisza's argument — that captured institutions cannot be un-captured by polite means — has real force, but the precedent cuts both ways: the tools used to dismantle Orbán's system will be available to whoever wins next. Hungary is about to discover whether constitutional hardball can be a one-time correction.
