“I fulfill my obligations under the Basic Law – after carefully weighing my legal options and my conscience,” Sulyok he said in a post on social media. “At the same time, however, it is a permanent proof that the basic values of a free society – the rule of law, democracy, and the principle of separation of powers – have been trampled for the sake of political power.”
Sulyok had five days to sign the amendment, and many Hungarians – including Hungarian – he expected to refuse. His alternative was to refer the amendment to the Hungarian Constitutional Court. Although Sulyok has he argued that the amendment is unconstitutional because it was aimed at him, the court could not make a decision about the validity of the constitutional amendment. Orbán stripped the court of that power in a 2013 amendment, leaving it to review only procedural violations.
The amendment also restores the mandatory retirement age of 70 for all Constitutional Court judges, a change that will force out four judges, including its controversial president, Péter Polt.
“If this can be done to the president of the republic, then tomorrow no one will be safe,” Orbán he said in a post on social media. “God save Hungary!” Former prime minister left the country earlier this week to watch the World Cup final in the United States
In his statement, Sulyok warned that the rule of law has ended in Hungary, and that the president “will no longer serve as any kind of check or balance.” Magyar has maintained that Sulyok himself presided over some of the worst violations of the rule of law under Orbán and that his removal was necessary to restore it.
“With Tamás Sulyok’s signature, the final hurdle for our joint decisions to come into effect has been removed,” Magyar said in a statement following Sulyok’s decision. “We are taking back something that the Orbán government has tried for years to take from the Hungarian people: the certainty that power can be limited.”
