Hungary amends law to bar Orbán, resets ties with Ukraine

Hungary’s new government has taken swift action to reshape the country’s political landscape and foreign relations, introducing a constitutional amendment to bar former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from returning to power while seeking to reset ties with both Ukraine and Poland.

On May 20, lawmakers from the ruling Tisza Party submitted a constitutional amendment that would impose an eight-year term limit on the premiership, applying retroactively to terms served since May 1990. The measure would prevent Orbán, who served a combined 20 years as prime minister, from ever holding the office again. The proposal also paves the way for dissolving the Sovereignty Protection Office, a body established under Orbán to investigate foreign influence, and would reclaim state assets from public-interest foundations that control universities and other institutions. The amendment is virtually guaranteed to pass given Tisza’s two-thirds parliamentary majority.

The move has drawn criticism from opposition figures and some legal experts. Gergely Gulyás, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, described the retroactive term limit as troubling and argued it undermines legal certainty. Some critics...