Orban allies protest in Hungary against plans to oust President Tamas Sulyok
Opponents of the Hungarian government’s efforts to oust the country’s president gathered for a protest in the capital, Budapest, on Thursday after being called to action by the former autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orban.
The protest drew several thousand people to the presidential offices at the opulent Sandor Palace in Budapest’s Castle District, where demonstrators spoke out in defence of President Tamas Sulyok, whom the new centre-right government has vowed to remove from office with a constitutional amendment. After defeating Orban in a blowout election in April, bringing an end to his 16 years in power, Hungary’s new pro-European prime minister, Peter Magyar, has taken action to dismantle what he calls Orban’s “mafia” by removing numerous political appointees and heads of institutions viewed as having facilitated Orban’s autocratic regime.
The constitutional amendment, set to go to a vote next week, would end Sulyok’s term, as well as set term limits for members of parliament, implement reforms to the judiciary and create a new authority tasked with uncovering alleged financial abuses by Orban’s government.
But Orban and his far-right Fidesz party, long accused of dismantling Hungary’s democratic institutions while in power, have declared that the move to remove Sulyok is an assault on the rule of law and democratic norms and the first steps toward a dictatorship.
