The Hungarian parliament introduced an amendment to the constitution “against Orban”: the prime minister will now be able to rule for no more than two terms

The Hungarian parliament introduced an amendment to the constitution “against Orban”: the prime minister will now be able to rule for no more than two terms

Author, Paul Kirby

Place of work, BBC

Published 6 minutes ago

Reading time: 3 min

This is a translation of the BBC article in English with minor changes. The original is here.

The Hungarian Parliament adopted an amendment to the constitution, according to which one person will not be allowed to serve as prime minister for more than two terms. Thus, the new ruling Tisza party has fulfilled the promise of its leader Peter Magyar that Viktor Orban will no longer be prime minister.

Viktor Orban ruled Hungary for 16 years until Peter Magyar's Tisza party unseated him and his Fidesz party in April's parliamentary elections. At the same time, Tisza won a two-thirds majority, which allows it to change the constitution.

According to the adopted amendment, no Hungarian politician will be able to hold the post of prime minister for more than two convocations of parliament, even if his terms as head of government were not consecutive.

Thanks to Tisza's constitutional majority, the amendment was passed without problems on Monday by a vote of 135 to 50, and now only needs the signature of President Tamás Szuljok to come into force.

The adoption of this amendment means that Peter Magyar will now be able to serve as prime minister only until 2034, even if he wins both the second and third regular elections with his party. He took office as prime minister in May.

Fidesz MPs voted against this amendment. Orban himself wrote on Facebook: “The Orban Law has just been adopted. This was the most important issue."

Viktor Orbán's ally and political adviser, Balás Orbán (namesake), said that Magyar was “eliminating a political opponent from the democratic struggle.”