Rage and threats, Péter Magyar during his speech in parliament.
The TISZA government is drafting a new constitution, Péter Magyar announced yesterday in parliament. In this, he wants to cap the term of office for members of parliament at 12 years likely retrospectively, and change the fundamental law in order to remove President Tamás Sulyok and the President of the Constitutional Court. If he succeeds, he would have removed the most senior and experienced democratically elected FIDESZ MPs from parliament, and destroyed all the checks and balances of power, turning Hungary into a de facto dictatorship.
Under the pretext of rectifying the wrongs of the previous Orbán government, PM Magyar is ruthlessly concentrating power in his own hands. In his address to the National Assembly on Monday, he announced that his government is initiating the termination of the current president’s term of office. To this end, they will submit an amendment to the Fundamental Law, and Tamás Sulyok’s term of office would end the day after it takes effect. This would not leave the president with time to appeal to any of the national or international legal bodies. With this unprecedented move, parliament would replace existing constitutional safeguards with a tailor-made amendment for a single individual, thus circumventing the current constitutional procedure.
Those who spent years calling Viktor Orbán a dictator are now proposing measures that would dramatically narrow democratic voice of the people of Hungary:
• banning @PM_ViktorOrban from serving as Prime Minister again, even if voters want him back
• removing the President… pic.twitter.com/xaT2EcBrfj— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) June 23, 2026
The TISZA government aims to legitimize its power-grab through a referendum, but referendums in Hungary are only binding if at least 50% of all eligible voters take part. Based on their election results, TISZA could win the popular vote in such a vote, yet in case opposition parties should urge their voters to abstain, it is uncertain whether Magyar would be able to mobilize half the Hungarian electorate.
Until TISZA’s constitutional changes are completed, the National Assembly dominated by Magyar’s party will elect a new President of the Republic to replace Tamás Sulyok.
For 14 year within FIDESZ, Péter Magyar has never raised any concerns about corruption, remarked Bence Rértvári, MP for KDNP. Photo: MTI/Bodnár Boglárka
As part of the planned amendment to the Fundamental Law, judges will once again be able to elect the president of the Constitutional Court, and the age limit of 70 will be reinstated. As a result, Péter Polt’s (71) term of office will end, and with it, his immunity. The TISZA Party and Péter Magyar regularly criticized Polt, and have repeatedly accused him of dereliction of duty, undermining the rule of law, and political bias. To date, the government has not launched criminal proceedings against the president of the Constitutional Court, but this cannot be ruled out in the future.
Magyar’s “purge” would not stop here though. In the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law, a proposal is being made to cap the term of office for members of the National Assembly at 12 years. He justified this by stating that 12 years is sufficient for representatives to carry out their platforms, a rather random assumption clearly calculated with the demographics of the current opposition in mind. The real goal of the amendment is widely thought to be the removal of immunity from senior FIDESZ representatives, whom Magyar has promised to prosecute for alleged fraud, corruption, or misconduct.
For this purpose he is creating the so called National Asset Recovery Office, the task of which would be to recover funds allegedly stolen by the previous government. In his typical theatrical fashion, Magyar also stated that the president and four vice presidents of the National Asset Recovery Office, all of which are expected to be TISZA loyalists or known anti-Orbán activists, will be under 24-hour police protection because, in his view, they have reason to fear the “Fidesz mafia.”
László Toroczkai, MP for the Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) party, reminded Magyar of his own shady past dealings with suspect businessmen, such as his contracts with fertility entrepreneur, Gyula Balásy. MTI/Bodnár Boglárka
In a threatening tone, he also warned that anyone who has had control over public assets in recent decades should start getting their paperwork in order and begin preparing explanations, because a super-agency to combat corruption, staffed by the “best experts,” is being established. FIDESZ and Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) politicians must decide, one by one, whose side they are on, he concluded.
While neither EU authorities, including the European Commission, nor previously vocal human rights NGOs have raised any concerns so far, commenters on the right of the political spectrum have warned that Hungary is facing a constitutional crisis and a breakdown of rule-of-law not seen since the Soviet invasion in 1956. According to Zoltán Lomnici Jr., a well-known conservative-leaning constitutional expert, it would be particularly concerning if the agency were to target a predetermined group of politicians or individuals, because the confiscation of assets cannot be based on political motives, but must be based solely on evidence, due process, and, ultimately, a judicial decision. The Fundamental Law guarantees the right to property and the right to a fair administrative and judicial process, stated Lomnici Jr.
Via VG.hu, Magyar Nemzet, Featured Image: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
