Hungary votes to remove Orbán-loyal president as Magyar dismantles Fidesz system 

Hungary’s parliament voted on 13 July to remove President Tamás Sulyok. Elected president in 2024, Sulyok held a largely ceremonial office but could sign legislation. 

Sulyok’s removal forms part of the sweeping 17th amendment to Hungary’s constitution, Politico reported.

Lawmakers approved the constitutional amendment by 139 votes to six, while Fidesz boycotted the session. The package also introduces a 12-year limit for lawmakers.

Sulyok’s removal is not yet final. He has five days to sign the constitutional amendment, and Tisza lawmakers have vowed to launch impeachment proceedings if he refuses.

Prime Minister Péter Magyar accused him of consistently siding with his former political patrons.

“Whenever he has had to choose between constitutional principles and the interests of Fidesz, Tamás Sulyok has time and again chosen the interests of Fidesz, and continues to do so to this day,” Magyar said according to Politico.

The vote marks another step in Magyar’s effort to dismantle the political system built during Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. Magyar won April’s election after promising to restore the rule of law, curb corruption and end Hungary’s role as Russia’s closest partner inside the EU.

What Magyar has changed for Ukraine—and what he has not

For Kyiv, Magyar’s record is an improvement over Orbán’s, but not a clean break.

His government ended Hungary’s two-year veto on EU reimbursements for weapons sent to Ukraine, releasing €6.6 billion and clearing a path for more than €40 billion in delayed claims.

But Magyar has also predicted that Europe will return to buying Russian gas after the war, all while hesitating to commit to a complete decoupling of Hungary from Russian energy.

Still, Magyar’s government also dismissed every Orbán-era intelligence chief and placed Russia hybrid-warfare expert Péter Buda in strategic oversight, seeking to remove pro-Russian influence from services that Hungary’s allies had come to distrust. 

Hungary still slows Ukraine’s EU accession

Magyar has not fully ended Budapest’s obstruction of Ukraine’s membership bid. In June, Hungary blocked a joint EU letter needed to advance accession talks, threatening Kyiv’s goal of opening all six negotiating clusters by mid-July.

Budapest later dropped its veto on Cluster 6, covering external relations and security policy, which the EU opened on 14 July. By then, however, only two of the six clusters had opened—indicating that Magyar has eased Orbán-era obstruction without entirely abandoning Hungary’s cautious stance on Ukraine’s membership.