Hungary’s President Faces Ouster Amid Government Shake-Up

BUDAPEST, Hungary — The Hungarian government’s efforts to oust President Tamás Sulyok have sparked a heated protest in the capital city of Budapest, with thousands gathering to defend the president against the proposed constitutional amendment.

The protest, which drew several thousand people to the presidential offices at the opulent Sándor Palace in Budapest’s Castle District, was called to action by former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been accused of dismantling Hungary’s democratic institutions during his 16-year tenure in power.

Orbán’s Fidesz party, which has struggled to recover from its major election defeat in April, has declared that the move to remove Sulyok is an assault on the rule of law and democratic norms, and the first steps toward a dictatorship.

Protesters, however, argue that the demonstration is not about the person of Sulyok, but about the office. ‘The point is not whether Tamás Sulyok is popular or not, but that this is simply unacceptable in a democracy,’ said Krisztina Nemerkényi, one of the protesters.

Hungary’s new pro-European prime minister, Péter Magyar, has argued that Sulyok failed to live up to his role as president by neglecting to stand in the way of antidemocratic steps by Orbán’s government. Magyar has promised repeatedly to remove Sulyok during the election campaign and points to his party’s two-thirds majority in parliament as a clear mandate from voters to fulfill that promise.

The constitutional amendment, set to go to a vote next week, would end Sulyok’s term, as well as set term limits for members of parliament, implement reforms to the judiciary, and create a new authority tasked with uncovering alleged financial abuses by Orbán’s government.

Magyar’s government has also taken action to dismantle what he calls Orbán’s ‘mafia’ by removing numerous political appointees and heads of institutions viewed as having facilitated Orbán’s autocratic regime.

Some of the key reforms implemented by Magyar’s government include:

• Implementing an 8-year term limit for prime ministers
• Ousting the heads of the national security and intelligence agencies that served under Orbán’s tenure
• Suspending the news service of Hungary’s public television and radio, which Magyar has argued served as a ‘propaganda factory’ for Orbán’s party

Magyar’s government has also succeeded in unlocking 16.4 billion euros (around $19 billion) in European Union funds for Hungary by enacting rapid reforms to roll back the democratic backsliding that occurred under Orbán.

János Pócs, a Fidesz lawmaker, told The Associated Press at the protest that while Fidesz had passed many constitutional amendments, it had done so ‘always in the interest of the country, in order to protect the country, but not for the sake of dictatorship.’

As the constitutional amendment heads to a vote next week, the fate of President Sulyok and the future of Hungary’s government hangs in the balance.