Hungary elects constitutional judge in one day. Amnesty accuses Magyar's government of the same unilateral procedure it criticized under Orbán

Hungary's parliament is to fill a vacant seat on the Constitutional Court on Monday, July 27, all within a single working day — the justice committee will propose a candidate in the morning, the chamber will elect him the same day, and the new judge will immediately take the oath. Yet the law gives parliament sixty days. Amnesty International Magyarország says that the government led by Péter Magyar is thereby emptying even the minimum of consultations that the rules allow, and that it is "the same one-sided selection of a constitutional judge without expert and political consultation as before." Telex ↗ HVG ↗

From Saturday's events in Hungary, what resonated most in Slovak media space was the speech that Viktor Orbán delivered in Tusnádfürdő about "a politics of resistance." The institutional layer of that same day — who and how occupies the constitutional court — remained in the background, though it is precisely what is being played for in Budapest.

The judge eliminated by a twelve-year term limit

The seat was vacated by Csaba Hende. The Seventeenth Amendment to the Fundamental Law, adopted by the Tisza majority, limited the total length of a parliamentary mandate to twelve years. Hende had been a parliamentarian for twenty-three years, so he lost the possibility of running again — and the Constitutional Court Act states that a judge's mandate terminates automatically if he ceases to meet the conditions for candidacy for parliamentary office. Do Rzeczy ↗ Telex ↗

Csaba Hende is not an incidental figure. In the second and third Orbán governments he was defense minister, later deputy speaker of parliament, a parliamentarian since 2002, and only became a constitutional judge in 2025. The term limit applies to current parliamentarians only from the next elections, so they need not leave now.

And it is not about one seat. The same amendment orders that members of the Constitutional Court who have reached seventy years of age must leave within two months. Its chairman Péter Polt will not remain in the body, nor will judges Mária Haszonicsné Ádámová, Miklós Juhász, and Zoltán Lomniczi. Polt was Hungary's Attorney General in 2000–2006 and again in 2010–2025, that is, throughout Orbán's rule after 2010. Judges are elected by parliament by secret ballot with a two-thirds majority on the proposal of the justice committee, and according to the Seventeenth Amendment their term is shortened from twelve to nine years without the possibility of re-election — and Tisza alone has 141 of 199 mandates. Telex ↗ Do Rzeczy ↗

Amnesty: sixty days to decide, Tisza will use one

Amnesty's criticism is specific and at the same time narrow. "This incredible haste is justified by nothing, after all there would be sixty days to find a new constitutional judge," the organization wrote. The deadline exists, in its view, precisely so that expert and political discussion can select the most suitable person for a body that is to protect the rule of law. HVG ↗ Népszava ↗

The organization does not explicitly challenge the nominee: "The Tisza candidate may be as excellent as possible — and we hope he will be." Its second objection is structural and targets the reform itself. According to Amnesty, the Seventeenth Amendment did not fix the court's most serious problem, namely that with a two-thirds majority one can get anyone into the body without compromise and without consultation. Telex ↗

Fidesz speaks of a "Polish scenario" and runs to the same court

Fidesz announced a boycott. "In paralyzing the Constitutional Court, Tisza is following the Polish scenario. The successor to the illegitimately removed constitutional judge will likewise be illegitimate. Fidesz will not participate in this theater — neither in the nomination nor in the election," the faction stated. Index ↗

At the same time, the party filed a constitutional complaint against the amendment, and proceedings on norm control are also underway at the Constitutional Court. Fidesz is thus asking for protection from precisely that body whose composition is being redrawn in those same days. Telex ↗

The opposition's strongest argument is not rhetorical but legal. Former justice minister Bence Tuzson published an open letter in which he asks the nominee not to accept the position and argues that this was not a neutral reform aimed at the future: "the term of a judge in office was shortened in such a way that the affected person did not breach any of his duties, did not become unfit to perform his function, and no actual proceedings for removal were conducted against him." He appeals to chess player Judit Polgárová, who declined the presidential candidacy. HVG ↗

The party did not maintain unity in the boycott, however. Fidesz's Tibor Navracsics congratulated the nominee, and the portal 444 recalled that Fidesz forgot to tell him that it considers the candidate illegitimate. Telex ↗ 444 ↗

The Constitutional Court also faces a second dispute with a higher price tag. Fidesz and KDNP parliamentarians asked it to overturn a government law intended to unlock EU funds, arguing that substantive coordination was lacking and institutional independence was violated. By the end of August, Budapest is to draw down more than 5,900 billion forints. Portfolio ↗

Who is Pál Sonnevend

Tisza nominated a constitutional and international law scholar from Loránd Eötvös University. Sonnevend served on the Constitutional Court alongside László Sólyom and was constitutional law adviser to presidents Ferenc Mádl and László Sólyom, later moving to academia. He represented Hungary before the International Court of Justice in The Hague and appeared before the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The faction claims that his expert qualifications and international authority cannot be questioned. Telex ↗ Népszava ↗

The limits of this perspective

The question "is Magyar following Orbán's path?" was framed in the headline by the Polish conservative Do Rzeczy, namely a medium long favorable to Orbán's view of politics, which at home conducts its own dispute over Tusk's rule-of-law restoration. Amnesty's position, however, reproduces it precisely. Do Rzeczy ↗

Precision matters here. Amnesty does not criticize the nominee's qualifications nor does it say that someone is filling the court, it criticizes the procedure and the fact that the two-thirds supermajority mechanism survived the reform. This is a weaker claim than "Tisza is copying Orbán," but it is verifiable.

A critic from a third side put it best. Mi Hazánk chairman László Toroczkai wrote that "a system of arbitrary rule is being built in a country where they rape the Fundamental Law, then threaten and ultimately remove the president of the republic, constitutional judges or the head of the State Audit Office" — in the same response, however, he reproached Orbán for failing to mention how Fidesz itself created the electoral system in which a fifty-three percent result becomes a two-thirds majority. HVG ↗

A difference remains that neither side emphasizes: this machinery was built after 2010 by sixteen years of Orbán governments, Tisza is using it three months. Whether it is a renewal or a repetition will be decided by the Constitutional Court — staffed by the same method that is being disputed. Viktor Orbán chose a different perspective in Tusnádfürdő and said that he must apologize because a prime minister who is wrecking the country came from their own ranks. Index ↗ HVG ↗

See also: Hungarian parliament closes Orbán's way back. Approved 8-year term limit and returns university foundations to the state

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