Kalasuara - Hungary's parliament removed President Tamas Sulyok on Monday, July 13, 2026, passing the country's 17th constitutional amendment by a vote of 139 to 6, with 54 abstentions among 199 seats. The vote cuts short Sulyok's term by about two and a half years before his original 2029 end date and completes the conditions for release of 16.4 billion euros, about $19 billion, in European Union funds frozen since the Viktor Orban era.

The amendment was drafted by Prime Minister Peter Magyar's government from the Tisza party, which holds a two-thirds majority in parliament after a landslide win in the April 2026 election that ended 16 years of rule by Orban's Fidesz party. Sulyok now has five days from the amendment's entry into force to sign it himself. If he refuses, an automatic impeachment process kicks in and the speaker of parliament signs on his behalf. Fidesz and its ally KDNP, the Christian Democratic People's Party, boycotted the debate and the vote in protest.

What is "Operation Cleansing Fire"?

Operation Cleansing Fire is Magyar's name for the same constitutional reform package that removes Sulyok. It bundles four measures: dismissing the president, forcing Constitutional Court judges into retirement through an age limit, capping lawmakers' terms at 12 years, and creating a new body to track state assets from the Orban era.

Magyar told parliament Sulyok was "unworthy to embody the unity of the Hungarian nation." Gergely Gulyás, who resigned as Fidesz floor leader after the vote, called the process "unprecedented," noting it is the first time a Hungarian head of state has been removed this way. Fidesz opposition figure Tamas Deutsch called the session "a constitutional farce."

Why is the Constitutional Court shaken too?

The same amendment reinstates a 70-year age limit for constitutional judges, forcing four of them into retirement about two months after the rule takes effect, including court president Peter Polt. The remaining judges will then choose their own president again for a three-year term, replacing the system of parliamentary appointment used throughout the Fidesz era.

Parliament must also choose a replacement president within 30 days. The new president will serve only until a new constitution takes effect, capped at five years, making the post a transitional one ahead of a broader constitutional overhaul.

Sulyok himself, a former Constitutional Court president appointed during Fidesz-KDNP's dominance, is viewed by Magyar as a holdover from the Orban system, though he formally holds no party affiliation.

The financial stakes behind the amendment

Magyar and Brussels had already reached an agreement in principle on releasing the 16.4 billion euros in EU funds on May 29, 2026. Rule-of-law reforms under Operation Cleansing Fire, including the amendment removing Sulyok, are an additional condition that must be met before the end-of-August 2026 deadline for the funds to actually flow. For Magyar, the pace of reform is a real test of whether his campaign promise to break from Orban's legacy is working, or has stalled at a mere change of elites.

Sulyok had already filed a written appeal to the Council of Europe's Venice Commission on May 29, asking it to assess whether the amendment meets European constitutional standards. A Venice Commission delegation visited Budapest on July 2, but its formal opinion will not be discussed until the October 2026 session, three months after Sulyok's removal takes effect. The legal process he is counting on to defend his position is moving slower than the political process removing him.

Budapest's political stability also matters to Indonesia. Hungary runs the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program, with about 110 slots a year for Indonesian students, and the memorandum of understanding behind it was renewed in December 2025 for 2026-2028. There is no sign yet that the program is affected, but hundreds of scholarship recipients and dozens of university partnerships between the two countries still depend on the bilateral relationship holding steady through this change of power.