The new pro-EU Hungarian government’s recent move to forcibly remove the country’s president from office with a constitutional amendment—without first consulting the Constitutional Court—apparently went one step too far even in the eyes of Amnesty International, an NGO that could hardly be accused of being biased in favor of the previous Orbán government. 

“In our opinion, the government’s current solution is not okay,” the human rights watchdog said in a statement. “The constitutional amendment ignores the fact that [President] Tamás Sulyok also has the right to a fair trial, and his removal is only possible with appropriate legal guarantees.”

It’s not just about [President Sulyok’s] rights. Only fair trial can guarantee that none of us is ever at the mercy of the authorities.

Additionally, the watchdog stated that the government, led by PM Péter Magyar’s Tisza party (EPP), gave only five days for public consultation—instead of the minimum eight specified by current laws—which was not nearly enough for Amnesty and other organizations to submit their opinions on the planned reforms, only one of which is the forced removal of the president. 

The government didn’t even wait for the Constitutional Court, which did schedule a last-minute session to publish an opinion, but the meeting was eventually canceled due to lack of quorum after half of the court withdrew from the process, likely intimidated by Magyar’s rhetoric. 

Of course, Amnesty did not go as far as to say that President Sulyok should stay in office until the end of his mandate, a democratic principle that every other government, including the Orbán governments, had always respected before, irrespective of who appointed them. No, the liberal NGO’s statement makes it clear that “Sulyok must go” because he “never did anything so that everyone could feel as an equal, free, and respected member” of the Hungarian community (translation: allowed Orbán to restrict Pride parades, although unsuccessfully). Their only problem is the blatantly undemocratic way PM Magyar wants to remove Sulyok and replace him with his own.

As we reported in more detail earlier, the constitutional amendment package contains several other controversial measures, including the removal of the president of the Constitutional Court (by introducing a 70-year age limit on members of the court) as well as a retroactive term limit of 12 years for members of parliament, which would eliminate nearly half of the MPs of both opposition parties—including all former ministers and every well-known right-wing politician—without whom real democratic debate would cease to exist in the National Assembly.

With this measure, Magyar attempts to make sure the national conservative side would never come back to power, nor would anyone else with enough experience to challenge him. Understandably, this move also drew heavy criticism from the former left-wing MPs and their parties, all of which stood aside and withdrew from the election to boost Tisza’s chances for victory and now feel betrayed by the new government.

“Do I understand it correctly that I will not be able to stand for parliamentary elections ever again in my own country?” commented Ágnes Kunhalmi, former co-president of the socialist MSZP. “You cannot limit anyone’s fundamental right to run for office at the next election, or even ten years from now.”