May 18 (Reuters) – Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok resisted calls from new Prime Minister Peter Magyar to quit in an interview published on Monday, saying there was no justification for his resignation.
Magyar’s TISZA party ousted former leader Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in an election landslide in April, ending its 16-year rule and promising to tackle rule of law issues and other reforms at the heart of disputes between Budapest and the European Union.
Calling the election a “vote for a change of regime”, Magyar has been ramping up pressure on the Fidesz-backed Sulyok and other officials to quit by the end of May.
“There is currently no legal reason or constitutional justification that could justify my resignation,” Sulyok told Index.hu.
“I remain faithful to my oath, and as long as the exercise of my office is not impossible, I intend to fulfil the mandate I have undertaken.”
The president’s role in Hungary is largely ceremonial, although Sulyok can refer laws back to parliament for reconsideration or forward legislation to the Constitutional Court, potentially hampering Magyar’s reform drive.
Magyar has called for the resignations of Sulyok and other “puppets” appointed under Orban, whose policies put the government in regular spats with the EU executive, holding up funds from the bloc.
Sulyok said in the Index.hu interview that the president must express the unity of the nation and pushed back against suggestions the election was a regime change, but rather a change of government.
Magyar has said if Sulyok does not resign, he would use his party’s big mandate to amend the constitution and other legislation to force him from office.
In a reply to Sulyok’s interview, Magyar said on Facebook on Monday that Hungary needed a president not loyal to any political camp and reiterated the president was a “puppet of the failed system”.
“You must leave! And you will leave,” he said.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague and Gergely Szakacs in Budapest; Editing by Alison Williams)
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