BUDAPEST – The Hungarian parliament approved on Monday the 16th amendment to the constitutionintroducing retroactive term limits that would prevent former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from being reinstated.
The amendment, approved by the supermajority of the ruling Tisza party with 135 votes in favor, limits prime ministers to two four-year terms. Most importantly, the limit applies to all terms served since May 1990, disqualifying Orban, who ruled Hungary for a combined 20 years. The opposition Fidesz and KDNP parties voted against the measure, while the far-right Mi Hazánk abstained.
of Tiza election victory in April ended 16 years of uninterrupted Fidesz rule and gave Prime Minister Péter Magyar the two-thirds majority needed to change Hungary’s constitution, paving the way for the revision.
Because constitutional amendments cannot be opposed on substantive grounds, President Tamás Sulyok has limited scope to prevent the measure from taking effect.
Reacting to the vote, Orbán rejected the measure. “The idea that anyone in Hungary – for example, me – can be kept away from people is very ridiculous. Orbán pushes index. “In the end, it’s the people who decide,” he added. “They’ve only been in power for a month. They shouldn’t be dreaming for eight years – that’s a mistake.”
The amendment also disbands the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty and the 34 public interest asset management foundations (PIMAs), which currently control major state assets, including 21 universities. KEKVA’s properties will be reclassified as national assets, with the state taking back all rights of the founders.
The law orders the immediate dissolution of 15 non-higher education foundations, including the elite Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) and a foundation created by Nobel laureate Ferenc Krausz.
During a heated parliamentary debate, Magyar mocked MCC board chairman Balázs Orbán over the state takeover of the Mathias Corvinus College. The foundation’s assets include various media and Libri, Hungary’s largest bookseller, which the organization acquired in 2023.
“I understand that the joke of a so-called newspaper hurts you tangerines now it will belong to the state and that we will be its owners, we will have to determine the content published there,” said Magyar, referring to the conservative medium, which has been operating since 1999 and was bought by MCC in 2025.
Despite the government’s pro-EU push, it remains committed to national borders. Interior Minister Gábor Pósfai confirmed at a committee hearing before the vote that Budapest would continue to reject the bloc’s migration pact.
“Hungary in its current form continues to reject the European Union’s migration pact, has not prepared a national implementation plan and does not plan to present one in the future,” Pósfai said, adding that Hungary will only provide voluntary bilateral technical assistance.
(cz)
