Hungarian Parliament Approves 8-Year Limit for Prime Ministers, Barring Orbán From Office

Led by new Prime Minister Peter Magyar, the Hungarian parliament has approved an amendment to its constitution that will limit prime ministers to eight years of service, effectively barring former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from returning to office.

The Details: The amendment passed with 135 votes in favor, 50 against, and 6 abstentions. It will have to be signed by President Tamás Sulyok to become final. Since winning the election, Magyar has consistently called on President Sulyok, an ally of Orbán, to resign. No other prime minister has served more than about 4.5 years since 1990 – the retroactive cutoff date for the new limit – meaning the law would currently only limit Orbán from reelection.

Opposition Comment: Orbán's former political director, Balázs Orbán, criticized the measure as "using political power to exclude a political opponent from democratic competition."

Political Context: Orbán was elected to 5 four-year terms as Hungary's prime minister, from 1998 to 2002 and 2010 to 2016. In April, he was defeated by Magyar, whose new Tisza party won a parliamentary supermajority, replacing the supermajority held by Orbán's Fidesz party. Magyar, who campaigned on improving relations with Brussels, improving media freedom, investigating corruption, and unlocking European Union funds, previously promised he would limit prime ministerial terms to two.

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Recent Headlines: On June 13, Orbán was reelected as Fidesz's party leader. Several other key developments took place on June 15: In parliament, Magyar called the conservative Hungarian newspaper Mandiner a "joke" and said, "It will now return to the state, and we will be its owners; we will have to determine the content that will appear there." Politico (Lean Left) reported that the EU's Transparency Register said it suspended the conservative Hungarian university MCC's Brussels syndicate. The European Union opened accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, two weeks after Magyar's government lifted the Hungarian veto on Ukraine's accession. Magyar's Foreign Minister Anita Orbán told reporters that Hungary had reached a minority rights agreement with Ukraine, a long-running issue between the two nations that escalated in 2017, and expressed support for further EU enlargement into the Western Balkans.

How The Media Covered It: The amendment's passing was widely covered by European mainstream outlets but less so by American mainstream outlets – though several outlets covered the story in April and May when it was still just a campaign promise. The Washington Examiner (Lean Right) framed the amendment as "meant to prevent former Prime Minister Viktor Orban from returning to power." Bloomberg (Lean Left) described it as the beginning of "dismantling former leader Viktor Orban's self-styled illiberal rule."

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