As Peter Magyar rams through his ‘Purgatory’ reforms to sideline Orbán’s old guard, he has also triggered warnings against his bid to eject the president.
Zoltan Szalay
One of the most controversial elements of the sweeping constitutional reform package announced by Hungary’s Tisza government, under the name Purgatory, would introduce a 12-year limit on parliamentary mandates. Under the proposal, anyone who has served a combined total of at least 12 years as an MP would no longer be eligible to stand for parliament.
Although there has also been discussion about introducing term limits for mayors, that proposal has not been included in the current draft.
What is Purgatory?
In Slovakia, Purgatory is the name of a high-profile police operation, under which several former senior officials and oligarchs linked to previous — and also the current — governments of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico have been prosecuted for allegedly establishing a criminal organisation. Among those facing charges are the Hungarian parliament’s deputy speaker Tibor Gašpar of Smer and businessman Norbert Bödör.
Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar has adopted the same name for a sweeping legislative package designed to dismantle the political system built by former Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán. At its core is a comprehensive constitutional amendment redefining the roles of the president, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the National Office for the Judiciary. The package would also reduce the number of so-called cardinal laws that require a two-thirds parliamentary majority to amend, establish a new Office for the Recovery and Protection of National Assets, and strengthen safeguards for public finances.
The government has opened the proposals to public consultation. Citizens may submit comments on the constitutional amendment until 27 June, while feedback on the bill establishing the new office will be accepted until 30 June.
The current constitutional amendment is presented as an emergency measure. The Tisza government says it will later launch a full constitutional process culminating in a referendum on a completely new constitution. However, this is expected to be a longer-term project, and no detailed timetable has yet been announced.
Szijjártó would also be forced out
One of Tisza’s flagship election pledges was to introduce an eight-year term limit for the prime minister. Although such restrictions are uncommon in parliamentary democracies, the proposal has generated relatively little public opposition. Fidesz has argued that the amendment is clearly aimed at Orbán personally, but this criticism appears to have had little impact on Tisza’s supporters, as Orbán was explicitly mentioned whenever the pledge was presented during the election campaign.
The proposed 12-year limit for MPs, however, has proved considerably more divisive.
Here too, the measure would primarily affect Fidesz, its coalition partner, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), and the far-right movement Mi Hazánk. None of Tisza’s MPs has previously served in parliament, meaning all of them would remain eligible to run in both the 2030 and 2034 elections. Fidesz, by contrast, would lose a significant share of its current parliamentary group. According to calculations by the weekly HVG, 22 of the party’s 52 current MPs would become ineligible for re-election, including several senior figures such as parliamentary group leader Gergely Gulyás, former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, former transport minister János Lázár, former justice minister Bence Tuzson, and former parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis.
In practice, the constitutional amendment would force Fidesz into a far-reaching generational renewal even before the next parliamentary election.
Measure could backfire
The recent course of Hungarian politics and the exceptionally strong position of the prime minister make the proposed term limit for the head of government easier to justify, political analyst Zoltán Lakner said in an interview with the YouTube channel Partizán.
He argued, however, that imposing a time limit on MPs could prove problematic in a different political context.
“At some point in the future, we may end up opening the door to politicians with entirely different motivations — people who would take advantage of easier access to the institutional system not to strengthen democracy, but for very different purposes,” Lakner said.
In his view, the real danger would arise if the proposed 12-year limit were shortened even further — a possibility that Magyar has not ruled out.
A key pillar of Orbán’s political system
Another central element of the constitutional reform is the planned reduction in the number of cardinal laws requiring a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
