Hungary rights groups criticise legislation to oust president

BUDAPEST, June 25 (Reuters) – Two Hungarian rights groups have criticised a draft constitutional amendment by Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s government that proposes the removal of President Tamas Sulyok and the introduction of a term limit for members of parliament.

Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party, which ousted Viktor Orban’s nationalist government in April after 16 years, argues that Sulyok is a “puppet” of Orban, and that a 12-year term limit on lawmakers would promote broader representation.

Hungary’s president has only limited powers to veto legislation or have it reviewed.

Sulyok, who served for 10 years as a Constitutional Court judge, eight of them as its head, until parliament appointed him president in 2024, has said he has no political agenda and has merely provided necessary checks and balances.

Tisza’s supermajority in parliament enables it to modify the constitution and roll back changes by Orban that critics say have harmed ​democracy.

Prime Minister Magyar on Thursday dismissed the criticism, saying their legislative proposal was “fast, tight, self-limiting and precise,” and had all been known to people before.

Magyar also told a briefing that he has invited the president and experts of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe panel, to Budapest next week to discuss the planned legislative changes.

The bill says its aim is to ensure “the preconditions for the restoration of constitutional democracy”. The planned constitutional amendment would end Sulyok’s term immediately, citing society’s “serious loss of confidence” in him.

The human rights campaign group Amnesty International Hungary said it believed Sulyok had become “unworthy of his office”. 

But its communication director, Aron Demeter, told the channel ATV late on Wednesday that impeachment would be a “better and fairer” process than removing the president with a constitutional amendment, and more in line with international standards.    

Political analyst Gabor Torok also criticised the plan to remove the head of state “with a one-sentence constitutional amendment”.

“Those who vote for this think … they can do anything with their qualified majority,” Torok wrote on Facebook.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union said setting a term limit for members of parliament was not an urgent issue, arguing that it should be decided within the framework of a thorough constitutional review. 

(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Alexandra Hudson)