Orbán's path back to power in Hungary could be blocked
A bill has been introduced in Hungary that could permanently block Viktor Orbán’s path to returning to the office of prime minister. The initiative would limit the term of office to two terms or a total of eight years. The proposal has already sparked political controversy and heated debate in the country, according to reports by Telex and Reuters.
On May 21, a draft constitutional amendment was submitted to the Hungarian Parliament proposing to radically change the rules governing the prime minister’s tenure and effectively establish a strict limit—no more than two terms or eight years in office.
The initiative was submitted by Tisza faction MPs Márton Melletei-Bárna and István Hantosi, and the document itself is titled “The Sixteenth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary,” and it has already sparked a broad political debate regarding the future configuration of power in the country.
According to the text of the draft, the restriction would apply retroactively from May 2, 1990, which effectively means that politicians who have already served as prime minister beyond the established limit would be barred from running for the position again—a provision that directly applies to Viktor Orbán, who has led the Hungarian government for 16 years. “The document stipulates that individuals who have already served as prime minister for at least eight years will not be eligible for re-election to this position,” the initiative’s description states.
In addition to term limits, the draft also proposes abolishing the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, established in 2023, which was responsible for evaluating the media and identifying potential threats to the state, adding an element of institutional restructuring to the initiative.
The political context surrounding these changes remains tense, as the current government and opposition forces interpret the necessity of such steps differently, and the draft itself has already become part of a broader discussion about the balance of power and the duration of political rule in Hungary.
Mátyás named the condition for opening the first cluster of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
Earlier, Péter Magyar stated that the issue of returning the frozen Ukrainian funds of Oschadbank would only be subject to negotiations after the official formation of the new government.
