Hungary Recalls President Sulyok via Constitutional Amendment. Magyar Launches Operation "Cleansing Fire"

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced in parliament on Monday, June 22, that his government would begin the process of recalling President Tamás Sulyok through a constitutional amendment. The move is part of an operation that Slovak media translate as "Cleansing Fire" (Denník N and Novinky render it as "Purgatory") and which, according to the prime minister, is meant to rid Hungary of a "political and economic mafia" — that is, Orbán's Fidesz. Magyar's party, Tisza, holds a two-thirds majority following its April election victory, meaning it can amend the constitution on its own. And that is precisely what raises the question the president's office itself has voiced aloud: is this about clearing away the remnants of the state captured by Orbán, or is the winner taking up the very same instruments of power he fought against?

What Magyar announced

In a speech to the National Assembly, broadcast live on his Facebook account, the prime minister said Monday was as important a day for Hungary as the April 12 election day. Through a constitutional law, he wants to end President Sulyok's term, limit parliamentary terms to twelve years, and also act against the most influential judges. Part of the package is a new Office for the Recovery of Public Assets (Vagyonvisszaszerzési Hivatal). Denník N ↗

The recall of the president itself is just the beginning. Starting in September, according to Magyar, an "entirely comprehensive" constitutional process is to get under way, one that will involve the whole of society, culminating in a new constitution to be approved by the people in a referendum. Pravda ↗

Why he can even do this

The key is the April election victory. Tisza secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, which in Hungary is enough to amend the basic law without the opposition — precisely the same constitutional lever Viktor Orbán used during his sixteen years in power. Magyar had given Sulyok until May 31 to step down on his own. When the president refused, the prime minister, already in early June, threatened to use a constitutional amendment against him. The constitution does offer other paths to removing him from office, but the government chose to amend the basic law; even then, Magyar spoke of a process taking roughly a month. Al Jazeera ↗

Magyar also justified his approach symbolically: according to him, the president stayed silent when the ousted prime minister spoke of wiretapping, a "great clean-up," and a shadow army — even though it should have been the head of state's role to declare that in the Hungarian Republic there are no citizens who need to be "cleared away." PBS NewsHour ↗

Also read: Magyar toughens stance against Fidesz and Orbán's legacy

Also read: Sulyok signs constitutional amendment, Orbán can no longer become prime minister

The other side: "unprecedented abuse"

The president's office reacted sharply. According to the daily SME, citing the Hungarian outlet rtl.hu, it described the removal of constitutional officeholders as an unprecedented abuse of legislative power; SME itself framed the dispute with the question of whether "Magyar is worse than Orbán." SME ↗

Fidesz, now in opposition, speaks of revenge. At the same time, it's clear from the Hungarian press that this is not an impulsive move: according to the portal Index.hu, Magyar, already in early June, at a closed-door faction meeting, urged Tisza's MPs to speak up if they had objections to recalling Sulyok. Many in the party expected the president to resign on his own on May 31; when that did not happen, the faction voted without objection to remove him. Index.hu ↗

Limits of this account

Most of the sources from which we assemble this picture have their own angle: Magyar's speech was his own Facebook livestream (that is, his framing), while both Index.hu and SME give the dispute a critical-skeptical lens toward the government. Reality lies somewhere in between. The staffing of key institutions with Fidesz loyalists during the Orbán era was well documented, and the effort to dismantle that power network has a legitimate core. But removing a sitting head of state through a constitutional majority is a precedent that anyone who secures the same majority in the future could equally use — and that is exactly the mechanism for which the European Union criticized Hungary under Orbán. Whether the same standard will now be applied remains an open question.

What hotinfo is following

The vote on the constitutional amendment (expected within roughly a month) — whether it passes and when Sulyok's term actually ends.

Sulyok's own response and any potential legal challenge to the process.

The September "comprehensive" constitutional process and the timeline for a referendum on the new constitution.

The stance of the European Union and the Venice Commission — whether they label the recall of the president by constitutional majority the same kind of problem as Orbán's amendments.

The first steps of the Office for the Recovery of Public Assets and the twelve-year limit on parliamentary terms.