Overview
- Tamás Sulyok announced he signed the constitutional amendment on July 18, a step that will end his presidency when his mandate expires on Monday and leave Ágnes Forsthoffer as interim head of state.
- Parliament now has 30 days to elect a new president in the National Assembly, where Magyar’s Tisza party holds a two-thirds majority that allows it to pass constitutional changes without veto.
- The reform package imposes a 70-year retirement age for Constitutional Court judges, which will remove four judges including court president Péter Polt and reshape the judiciary’s composition.
- Prime Minister Péter Magyar publicly proposed former chess grandmaster Judit Polgár as a unifying, nonpartisan candidate for the presidency and said he will meet her about the offer.
- Fidesz and Viktor Orbán denounced the moves as a takeover while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International warned the fast procedure risks weakening legal safeguards and due process, and observers say the next steps could include drafting a new constitution and changing how presidents are chosen.