Magyar visited the head of state accompanied by Minister of Justice Márta Görögová. After the meeting, the Prime Minister accused Sulyok of betraying the country and the Hungarian nation at crucial moments. “I informed the president of the republic that if he does not resign, I will inform the parliamentary faction of the Tisza party and we will immediately start the necessary process,” the prime minister emphasized.
According to Magyar, the current Hungarian constitution allows more options for the removal of the president. “However, in order to protect the prestige of the office of the president, we will change the constitution so that the amendment is not aimed at the current president personally,” Magyar said without further details.
“This process will take about a month. We are trying to adopt the necessary legislation as quickly as possible,” Magyar said, adding that the new government will try to eliminate “all the puppets of the former regime.”
After the meeting with the president, Magyar emphasized that the Hungarian Republic does not belong to Sulyok or former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Fidesz). “Generations have built and defended the Republic of Hungary. We must restore the authority of one of the most important institutions of the Republic of Hungary,” said Magyar. According to the Prime Minister, Sulyok damaged and threatened trust in democratic institutions in his position.
Magyar’s press conference in front of the president’s residence was interrupted by protesters who accused him of treason.
In Hungary, the parliament elects the president. But removing him from office is not so easy even with the constitutional majority that Magyar has.
The president can only be dismissed if the head of state does not comply with the so-called The basic law, i.e. the constitution, willfully violates it in connection with the performance of the function, or commits an intentional crime.
In such a case, one-fifth of the deputies can initiate proceedings for removal from office, the initiation of which requires a two-thirds majority. Here, Magyar has 141 votes in the 199-member parliament. However, the final decision does not belong to the Parliament, but to the Constitutional Court. And it is still occupied by judges appointed for Orbán.
Tisza, with her majority, could go the way of changing the law, which would shorten Sulyok’s mandate, which now formally belongs to him until 2029.
Sulyok was elected head of state in 2024, when President Katalin Nováková resigned at the beginning of the same year. She left that position after the case with the granting of a pardon for the deputy director of a children’s home in the city of Bicske, who covered up the sexual abuse of children by the director of the institution.
