New Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has intensified his campaign to push President Tamás Sulyok out of office, vowing to use his party’s large parliamentary mandate to force the issue if the head of state refuses to go.
Magyar, sworn in on May 9 after his Tisza party won a landslide in the April 12 election, has set Sulyok a deadline of May 31 to resign. He has argued the President failed to act as a guardian of the constitution under Viktor Orbán and is, in his words, a “puppet of the failed system”. Writing on Facebook, Magyar said Hungary needed a head of state who was not loyal to any political camp.
The Prime Minister has said that, if Sulyok does not step down, he would use his two-thirds majority in the 199-seat parliament to amend the constitution and other laws to remove him. The pressure forms part of a wider push to dislodge officials appointed during Orbán’s 16 years in power with the Fidesz party.
Sulyok, who was elected in 2024 with the backing of Fidesz, has rejected the demand. In an interview with the news outlet Index.hu published on May 18, he said he intended to serve out his term within the existing constitutional framework. “There is currently no legal reason or constitutional justification that could justify my resignation,” he said, according to Reuters. He added that he would remain faithful to his oath as long as carrying out his office was not rendered impossible.
The President said redefining his office could be a legitimate political aim but warned that any such change should be carried out with proper preparation, adding that there was no historical precedent in Hungary for what was being proposed. A petition backing his stay in office has been signed by more than 100,000 people, to which he responded only that freedom of expression existed in the country.
The standoff comes as the new government tries to unlock billions of euros in European Union money frozen over rule-of-law concerns, with a deadline later this year. Magyar has said he wants to roll back Orbán’s judicial changes and rejoin the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which investigates financial crime, in a bid to release the suspended funds.
Fidesz has condemned the calls for the President to resign. The dispute is expected to move into a legal and parliamentary battle in the coming weeks.
