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Tamás Sulyok will not step down as Hungary’s president. In a Facebook video, Sulyok said that he wanted to continue working with the government and would support the legislation needed to unlock EU funds.
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Prime Minister Péter Magyar responded with a Facebook post:
“Tamás Sulyok has never stood up for the downtrodden, for those under attack, or in defence of the rule of law. Even on Children’s Day he is only defending his monthly salary of 6.3 million forints, instead of apologising.”
The prime minister had set a 31 May deadline for the resignation of the head of state and several other senior public officials, including President Tamás Sulyok and Prosecutor General Gábor Bálint Nagy.
On Sunday afternoon, Magyar reminded followers of the approaching deadline in a Facebook post and announced that he and the justice minister would visit the president at 8 a.m. on Monday.
Magyar has previously described Sulyok as Viktor Orbán’s “puppet president”, arguing that Orbán wanted a head of state whose primary loyalty was to Fidesz, while the defence of constitutionalism and national unity came second.
On Sunday, Sulyok reiterated that he would not resign and said that he had turned to the Venice Commission and that his case must be handled according to the constitution.
Under Hungary’s constitutional system, the president is elected by parliament and has largely ceremonial powers, although the office also plays a role in the constitutional review of legislation. Presidents elected with Fidesz’s constitutional majority — Pál Schmitt, who resigned after a plagiarism scandal, János Áder, Katalin Novák, who stepped down over a controversial pardon case, and Tamás Sulyok — have all been regarded as loyal supporters of Viktor Orbán’s governments.
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