He finally signed. Tamás Sulyok, Hungary’s president and a leftover from the Viktor Orbán era, put pen to paper on Saturday, effectively firing himself. It was the only move he had left. The country’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar, had been trying to kick him out for weeks as part of a massive, scorched-earth purge of the old guard.
Magyar won big in April. Since then, he has treated Sulyok like a political squatter. The new PM repeatedly demanded the president resign, calling him Orbán’s ‘puppet’ and accusing him of rubber-stamping the previous regime’s slide into autocracy. Sulyok dug his heels in. He refused to budge. So, Magyar’s center-right Tisza party did what any aggressive new government does: they rewrote the constitution.
The lawmakers passed an amendment ending the president’s term immediately. Sulyok had five days to sign his own political death warrant. He waited until the absolute last minute.
He didn’t go quietly. In a bitter Facebook video posted Saturday night, Sulyok lamented that the forced signing was proof that democracy and the rule of law had been ‘trampled on in the interest of power.’ It was a classic parting shot. His term officially expires Monday at midnight. After that, parliamentary speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer takes the wheel temporarily. Lawmakers have 30 days to find a replacement.
Magyar is moving fast. Since taking power in May, he has been tearing down what he calls Orbán’s ‘mafia.’ He has fired political appointees, shut down the Sovereignty Protection Office—which critics called a tool to silence independent media—and pulled the plug on the state news service, labeling it a ‘propaganda factory.’
The amendment wasn’t just about Sulyok. It also pushed through judicial reforms, set up an anti-corruption office to probe Orbán-era financial abuses, and slapped a 12-year term limit on lawmakers. Orbán, watching his empire crumble, took to Facebook to whine. ‘Tyranny is no longer a threat, but a reality,’ the former strongman wrote, warning that ‘tomorrow no one will be safe.’
Magyar, of course, sees it differently. He posted his own video, declaring that the government had finally returned what the Orbán regime stole from the Hungarian people. On Monday, his party meets to pick the next face of the presidency. The wheel keeps turning.
