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We, public law scholars, have come, after careful consideration, to the difficult conclusion that we support the replacement of those high-ranking public office-holders who have remained in office from the previous autocratic regime. At the same time, we consider it justified for Parliament to exercise self-restraint in the election of new public office-holders.

After the parliamentary elections, the Prime Minister called on the President of the Republic, as well as the presidents of the Curia (Supreme Court), the National Judicial Office, the Constitutional Court, the State Audit Office, the Hungarian Competition Authority, the Media Authority, and the Prosecutor General, to resign. The Prime Minister further stated that, should these public office-holders decline to do so, Parliament would remove them from office by amending the Fundamental Law.

Parliament may amend the Fundamental Law by a two-thirds majority. No public institution may review constitutional amendments for their substance. If the President of the Republic vetoes an amendment duly adopted in accordance with the prescribed procedure, and the Constitutional Court reviews the amendment, both institutions thereby act in violation of the Fundamental Law. However, the power of the two-thirds parliamentary majority is not unlimited. The removal of public office-holders is an unprecedented step that may be justified only by exceptional and compelling reasons, pursued for justifiable purposes, and carried out through appropriate legal means.

The exceptional reason for the replacement of these public office-holders is the restoration of constitutional democracy and the rule of law. Several years ago, the European Parliament, taking into account the opinions of experts, concluded that Hungary could no longer be considered a democracy but had become a new form of electoral autocracy. The Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights have held in significant cases that the transformation of certain constitutional institutions and public offices was arbitrary and unlawful. A substantial body of authoritative research supports the conclusion that, in recent years, these public law institutions have not advanced the functioning of democracy and the rule of law but have instead become instruments of one-person rule. Public law institutions have lost the integrity required by the rule of law.

Public office-holders, from the President of the Republic to the judges of the Constitutional Court and from the Prosecutor General to the President of the Curia, played a significant role in the establishment and maintenance of the autocratic regime. Through their decisions and omissions, they share responsibility for the massive human rights violations suffered by marginalised individuals and groups, as well as for systemic abuses of public assets, the transfer of public goods into private hands, and the resulting social injustices. Because these public office-holders remained loyal to autocratic power until the very end, they have irreparably lost their credibility. Whatever decisions they may make in the future, they have proven themselves to be decision-makers beholden to political power and prone to bias, rather than officials guided by the spirit and letter of the law. Their continued tenure would obstruct the restoration of constitutional democracy and the rule of law. The credible functioning of public law institutions is possible only under new leadership.

The two-thirds majority may, through self-limiting legal measures, ensure that the necessary personnel changes contribute to the restoration of constitutional democracy and the rule of law. First, it is necessary to avoid manipulative solutions and legal tricks of the kind that characterised the autocratic period. Although procedurally correct, changes that conceal their true purposes constitute acts of bad faith and therefore cannot serve as building blocks of constitutional democracy and the rule of law.

Second, it is advisable to ensure that urgent personnel changes do not entail rapid and unconsidered changes to the constitutional structure and the allocation of powers. A stable framework can be properly established through a comprehensive constitutional process, rather than through extraordinary interventions compelled by an exceptional situation.

Third, self-limiting personnel changes can be the first step towards restoring checks and balances if the selection of new public office-holders takes place through a transparent procedure, with the involvement of professionally recognised bodies and the consideration of ethical criteria. In this exceptional and transitional situation, this can help ensure that Parliament elects credible, impartial, and capable individuals in place of those who served the autocratic regime in public office.

June 18, 2026.

Signed by

Balogh, Judit, habil. Associate Professor, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law

Barcsi, Tamás, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Legal Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Pécs Faculty of Law

Bartha, Ildikó, Professor, Head of the Department of European and International Law, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law

Bayer, Judit, habil. Associate Professor, Budapest University of Economics and Business

Bárd, Petra, Professor, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Faculty of Law

Bencze, Mátyás, Professor, University of Szeged Faculty of Law / Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Boda-Balogh, Éva, Adjunct Professor, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law

Chronowski, Nóra, DSc., Research Professor, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Csapody, Tamás, habil. Associate Professor, Semmelweis University

Cserne, Péter, Professor, University of Aberdeen, School of Law

Deák, Izabella, Assistant Lecturer, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law / Researcher, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Drinóczi, Tímea, DSc., Professor, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius

Farkas, Lilla, Associate Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences

Fazekas, Flóra, Assistant Professor, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law

Ficsor, Krisztina, Assistant Professor, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law

Fleck, Zoltán, Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Law

Fodor, László, DSc., Professor, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law

Győrfi, Tamás, Professor, University of Aberdeen, School of Law

Hoffmann, István, DSc., Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Law / Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Hoffmann, Tamás, Associate Professor, Corvinus University of Budapest / Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Kadlót, Erzsébet, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Szeged Faculty of Law

Kirs, Eszter, habil. Associate Professor, Corvinus University of Budapest

Kovács, Ágnes, Assistant Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences

Kovács, Kriszta, habil. Associate Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences / Visiting Senior Researcher, WZB Berlin

Körtvélyesi, Zsolt, Associate Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences

Kövér-Van Til, Ágnes, Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences

Lattmann, Tamás, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Social Sciences, Tomori Pál College / University of New York in Prague

Lux, Ágnes, Associate Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences

Majtényi, Balázs, Professor, Head of the Human Rights and politics Department, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences

Mészáros, Gábor, Assistant Professor, University of Pécs Faculty of Law

Mráz, Attila, Assistant Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Humanities

Nagy, Krisztina, Assistant Professor, Budapest University of Technology and Economics Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences

Pap, András László, DSc., Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Economics / Research Professor, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Perecz, László, Professor, Budapest University of Technology and Economics Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences / ELTE University Faculty of Economics

Polyák, Gábor, Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Humanities, Director, Institute for the Theory of Art and Media Studies

Sándor, Judit, Professor, Central European University

Sólyom, Péter, habil. Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Constitutional Law, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law / Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Szente, Zoltán, DSc., Research Professor, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Szentes, Ágota, Researcher, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

Tóth, Gábor Attila, DSc., Professor, University of Debrecen Faculty of Law / Semmelweis University

Tóth, Judit, Associate Professor, University of Szeged Faculty of Law

Varju, Márton, habil. Associate Professor, ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences / Acting Director, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies

(Drafted by Kriszta Kovács and Gábor Attila Tóth)

 Scholars of legal studies and related disciplines, as well as judges, lawyers, and other legal professionals, are welcome to sign this open letter. Among the more than 300 additional signatories so far are: András Baka, former judge of the European Court of Human Rights and former President of the Supreme Court; János Kis, philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Central European University, former leading figure of the democratic opposition to the communist regime; Gabriella Ilonszki, DSc., Professor Emerita of Comparative Political Science and Parliamentarism at Corvinus University of Budapest; Gábor Halmai, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at ELTE University and the European University Institute in Florence; Miklós Szabó, Professor Emeritus of Legal Theory at the University of Miskolc; Péter Róna, Professor at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford; Judit Lévayné Fazekas, Professor of EU Law at Széchenyi István University; László Majtényi, DSc., Hungary’s first Data Protection Ombudsman; András Bozóki, DSc., Professor of Political Theory at Central European University; András Földi, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Professor of Roman and Comparative Law at ELTE University; Andrew Arato, Professor of Social and Constitutional Theory at The New School, New York; Erzsébet Szalayné Sándor, Professor of International and European Law at the University of Pécs; and Andrea Krizsán, Professor of Public Policy and Gender Studies at Central European University.

International scholars are welcome to sign the open letter, which is available on the website reconstitutio.hu. Alternatively, they may send an email to the following address: reconstitutio@gmail.com

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