Hungary adopts prime ministerial term limits, barring Orban's return
Hungary’s parliament approved a constitutional amendment limiting prime ministers to a maximum of eight years in office , passing the measure 150 to 50 with six abstentions. The change effectively blocks Viktor Orban, who governed for 16 years, from returning to the post.
The amendment was driven by Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party won a landslide in April’s election on a platform of realigning Hungary with the European mainstream. Alongside the term cap, parliament moved to dismantle the Sovereignty Protection Office, a body Orban’s government used to scrutinize critical journalists and NGOs. Orban responded sardonically on social media that “the Orban law has been passed.”
Term limits are constitutionally entrenched and harder for a future majority to reverse than ordinary legislation, which is why Magyar is using them to lock in the post-Orban order rather than relying on electoral outcomes alone. The dismantling of the sovereignty office also removes one of the main institutional levers the previous government used against domestic critics.