Fidesz Nominates Tamás Sulyok, Head of the Constitutional Court, for President

MTI-Hungary Today 2024.02.23.

The governing parties are nominating Tamás Sulyok, the current president of the Constitutional Court, as President of the Republic, announced Máté Kocsis, Fidesz parliamentary group leader, at a press conference. Kocsis also announced that the Fidesz presidium will propose Tamás Deutsch as the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP EP list.

“The governing parties have accepted the proposal made by Fidesz (…) and we propose Dr. Tamás Sulyok, President of the Constitutional Court, as President of the Republic. We believe that the President of the Constitutional Court is the most suitable candidate for this office and therefore we have put our trust in him,” stressed Máté Kocsis. The Fidesz parliamentary group leader noted that

next Monday, the National Assembly will decide on accepting the resignation of Katalin Novák, and the ruling party parliamentary groups will support this with their votes.

He added that they think it is right that the National Assembly should be able to elect the new president as soon as possible, but he could not say when this would happen, because it also depends on whether the opposition parties nominate a candidate for the position.

❗ BREAKING: Today, after careful deliberation at the parliamentary group meeting, Máté Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz Parliamentary Group, announced the nomination of Dr. Tamás Sulyok, President of the Constitutional Court as the government parties’ presidential candidate. pic.twitter.com/Q1h6QwTTQH

— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) February 22, 2024

Kocsis also announced that the Fidesz presidium will propose Tamás Deutsch as the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP EP list. The order of the EP list will be decided by the national electoral committee in March, similar to the order of the candidates in the municipal elections, he added.

Tamás Deutsch. Photo via Facebook/Deutsch Tamás

Shortly after the announcement, Tamás Sulyok reacted to the nomination in a statement: “As President of the Constitutional Court, I have the honor to be nominated for the office of Head of State. As a lawyer, as President of the Republic, I can serve the public good and express the unity of the nation, above all by upholding the fundamental values of law.

I respectfully thank you for your nomination for President of the Republic and accept your candidature.”

Fact

Tamás Sulyok graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences in Szeged in 1980, worked as a legal adviser for nine years from 1982, and then was a lawyer until his election as a constitutional judge. From 2000 to 2014, he was Honorary Consul of Austria, and since September 2005, he has been a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Szeged. Sulyok was elected a member of the Constitutional Court by parliament in September 2014, and six months later he was voted as Deputy President of the Constitutional Court. He was elected President of the Constitutional Court at the end of November 2016.

In an earlier interview with Magyar Nemzet about the independence of constitutional court judges, the President of the Constitutional Court said that it is a matter of taste who one calls a party soldier, but that history has shown that the label does not lead to anything good.

On the relationship between EU and national law, Sulyok noted that the EU has 27 national laws and a sui generis European legal system that are equivalent and have no superior or inferior status. The national courts are therefore not subordinate to the Court of Justice of the European Union. If a conflict arises between the national courts and the Court of Justice, it can only be resolved through mutual dialogue; there is no judicial forum that can have the last word.

The rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union are just as valid for Hungary as the decisions and rulings of our own courts,

emphasized Sulyok.

In the meantime, the the opposition also reacted to the nomination announcement. The Democratic Coalition and Jobbik expressed their demands that the people should decide on the president of the republic. In addition, some of the parties reacted by naming their own recommended candidates for the position.

On the other hand, the parliamentary group leader of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) considers it a wise decision that the prime minister has proposed the President of the Constitutional Court as President of the Republic. István Simicskó confirmed that his parliamentary group unanimously supports Tamás Sulyok.

István Simicskó, leader of KDNP, and Máté Kocsis (L-R). Photo via Facebook/Simicskó István

I have confidence in him, and I am sure he will be a good president of the republic,”

stressed the KDNP group leader, adding that he hopes the new president will be able to start his work as soon as possible.

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Via MTI, Magyar Nemzet; Featured image via Hungary Today