Steven N.
Tamás Sulyok, the President of the Constitutional Court (pictured), reacted in an open letter to growing discussion and consideration of certain political ideas in recent days, such as the abolition of Fidesz’s Fundamental Law and the dissolution of the Constitutional Court in the event of a change of government.
As he wrote, the views expressed by certain parties and clearly supported by intellectual circles sympathetic to them are, according to the President of the Constitutional Court, direct and serious attacks on the rule of law and democracy, and as such, are completely unacceptable in a democratic state governed by the rule of law.
In the letter addressed to Hungarian President János Áder, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and House Speaker László Kövér, he wrote:
Constitutional courts, as guarantors of the smooth functioning of the legal system, keep watch to ensure that the acts of the branches of power comply with the requirements of the constitutions. The Hungarian Constitutional Court, similar to other European constitutional courts, is a body that provides a universally-accepted guarantee in European constitutional democracies of the functioning of the rule of law and democracy. The Constitutional Court exercises constitutional control over all branches of government, but its smooth operation is the joint responsibility of the legislature and the executive.
The full letter from the President of the Constitutional Court in Hungarian can be read here.
At his press conference on Tuesday, Péter Márki-Zay, opposition’s candidate for prime minister, stated in response to a journalist’s question that he would rewrite the Basic Law if given the authorization by a national referendum. Legal experts from the opposition frequently note that laws requiring a two-thirds majority will have to be overwritten to dismantle the system created by ruling party Fidesz.
