Hungary is facing a growing constitutional dispute between President Tamás Sulyok and Prime Minister Péter Magyar, as the country’s new government seeks to remove senior officials associated with the era of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In an interview with the Swiss weekly Weltwoche, Sulyok strongly rejected pressure to resign and described attempts to force him out through constitutional changes as a threat to democracy and the rule of law.
“There is certainly one case in which the president of Hungary could not resign: if the prime minister ordered him to do so,” Sulyok said, according to reports cited by Reuters and the Financial Times. The statement underlines the seriousness of the institutional standoff now unfolding in Budapest.
The conflict began after Magyar, Hungary’s new prime minister and leader of the Tisza Party, repeatedly called on Sulyok to step down. The president had been elected in 2024 by the then Fidesz-dominated parliament and is widely seen by Magyar’s camp as part of the political architecture left behind by Orbán. Magyar set a deadline of May 31 for Sulyok and other senior officeholders to resign voluntarily. When the president refused, the prime minister announced that his government would pursue constitutional amendments to enable his removal.
Sulyok argues that such a move would cross a dangerous line. In the Weltwoche interview, he said that changing the constitution in order to remove a specific officeholder would endanger not only Hungary’s constitutional order, but also the country’s democratic system and the rule of law. He described the planned measure as a “personalised constitutional amendment” and called it an act of “political plunder.”
The dispute goes beyond the fate of one president. It reflects a broader struggle over how far Hungary’s new government can go in dismantling the institutional legacy of the Orbán era. Magyar has argued that his electoral mandate gives him the right — and the obligation — to replace officials who, in his view, failed to defend constitutional principles, victims of abuse, and the rule of law under the previous government. He has accused Sulyok of acting as an “Orbán puppet,” a charge the president says is a serious attack on the dignity of his office.
Sulyok, a constitutional lawyer by background, insists that the presidency cannot be treated as an ordinary political appointment. Although the Hungarian president has largely ceremonial powers, the office still plays an important role in the constitutional system, including the signing of legislation and the possibility of referring laws to the Constitutional Court. That is precisely why the dispute has become so sensitive: for Magyar’s government, Sulyok could become an obstacle to reform; for the president, his forced removal would undermine institutional independence.
The president has said he has turned to the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters, for guidance amid what he describes as an escalating constitutional crisis. This move internationalises the dispute and may increase scrutiny of Hungary at a moment when the new government is trying to convince European partners that it is restoring democratic standards after years of Orbán’s rule.
Magyar has responded sharply to Sulyok’s comments. In a social media post, he accused the president of failing to defend children who were victims of abuse, people persecuted under the Orbán system, and the rule of law. In an interview with ATV, the prime minister stressed that he respects the office of president, but argued that Hungarian voters gave his government a clear mandate to replace high-ranking officials linked to the previous regime.
The prime minister also announced that he intends to meet Sulyok again and urge him to respect what Magyar describes as the will of the citizens by resigning. But the president has made clear that he does not intend to leave office under political pressure.
The confrontation creates a difficult dilemma for Hungary’s new leadership. On the one hand, Magyar came to power promising to dismantle Orbán’s entrenched system and restore democratic checks and balances. On the other hand, removing a sitting president through a constitutional amendment tailored to one individual risks creating a precedent that could itself be seen as weakening constitutional safeguards.
For Hungary, the coming weeks may prove decisive. The dispute between Sulyok and Magyar is no longer only a personal conflict between two political figures. It has become a test of how a post-Orbán Hungary will redefine the balance between democratic renewal, constitutional legality, and political power.
