Hungary President Signs Law Ending His Own Term in Office
- Jul 20
- 3 min read
WHAT HAPPENED: In one of the stranger constitutional episodes in modern European politics, Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has signed into law a constitutional amendment that ends his own presidency, effective immediately. The signature closes a weeks-long standoff between the president and Hungary’s new government under Prime Minister Péter Magyar — and it means Hungary’s head of state has, in effect, legislated himself out of office.
Sulyok waited until the final day of the five-day window the law allowed him, and he did not go quietly. In a statement accompanying his signature, he denounced the amendment as an abuse of political power and an attack on the rule of law — while acknowledging that refusing to sign a validly passed constitutional amendment would itself have been unlawful.
WHAT WE KNOW: The amendment was passed by parliament after Magyar publicly called for Sulyok’s resignation, a demand rooted in the broader collision between Hungary’s new governing majority and officeholders installed under former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s long rule. Sulyok, a former constitutional court president, was elected to the presidency in 2024 by an Orbán-dominated parliament after his predecessor resigned in scandal.
Under the new law, parliamentary speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer will serve as interim head of state until parliament elects a successor. The amendment is not a one-off: it forms part of a sweeping overhaul of Hungary’s constitutional framework, including new limits on parliamentary mandates and structural reforms to judicial institutions.
BACKGROUND: Hungary’s 2026 political landscape has been defined by the aftermath of Magyar’s election victory, which ended the Orbán era and left the new government facing a state apparatus staffed top to bottom with appointees of the old ruling party. The presidency — a largely ceremonial office that nonetheless signs laws, hands out key appointments, and can slow legislation — became the most visible battleground.
Supporters of the amendment argue that a president elected by a discredited supermajority cannot be allowed to obstruct a government with a fresh democratic mandate, and note that constitutional amendments passed by the required parliamentary majority are, by definition, legal. Critics — including some who opposed Orbán for years — warn that removing a sitting president by amendment sets a precedent that any future majority can weaponize, and that fighting institutional capture with institutional force can corrode the very norms it claims to restore.
REACTION: European commentators are split along exactly that line. Rule-of-law advocates in Brussels, who spent more than a decade battling Orbán’s government over judicial independence and media freedom, now find themselves debating whether Hungary’s course correction is restoration or repetition. Sulyok’s allies call it a purge; Magyar’s camp calls it a cleanup. The Hungarian public, exhausted by two years of political upheaval, appears mostly focused on the economy.
The mechanics now move quickly. Forsthoffer assumes the interim presidency immediately, and parliament — where Magyar’s coalition holds the votes — is expected to elect a new president in the coming months. Whoever is chosen will take office with the constitutional framework already reshaped around the new government’s priorities.
WHAT TO WATCH: The European Union’s response, or lack of one. The EU froze billions in funds over rule-of-law concerns during the Orbán years; how Brussels treats a friendly government using aggressive constitutional tools will say a great deal about whether those standards are principles or politics. Watch also the judicial reform package moving alongside the presidential amendment — it will determine how much of Hungary’s institutional overhaul outlasts the current parliament.
Watch, too, for the precedent’s echo beyond Hungary. Central Europe’s democracies have traded playbooks for two decades, and a constitutional amendment that ends a head of state’s term mid-mandate is now part of the regional repertoire.
BOTTOM LINE: Hungary’s president signed away his own office because the constitution left him no lawful alternative — a sentence that captures both the amendment’s legality and its strangeness. The Magyar government has cleared the last major Orbán-era officeholder from its path. Whether that proves to be the end of Hungary’s institutional wars or just the next round will define the country’s politics for years.
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