Tamás Sulyok

Tamás Sulyok was elected president of the Constitutional Court by the body itself in 2016, and in February 2024 Fidesz-KDNP floor leader Máté Kocsis announced his candidacy for President of Hungary at a party retreat in Balatonalmádi, with no public consultation or competitive nomination process — a move the opposition met with a boycott and sharp criticism. Parliament elected him President on February 26, 2024, with 134 votes in favor. MSZP said that as Constitutional Court president Sulyok had 'served the Orbán government in everything,' while DK called him 'another Fidesz party soldier' — characterizations made by opposition parties, not judicial findings. It is independently verifiable that the Constitutional Court under his presidency ruled in May 2022 that referendum initiatives on the Fudan University campus in Budapest and on unemployment benefits were unconstitutional, blocking both votes. Sulyok's nomination and the Court's rulings are documented examples of party-political influence over judicial and head-of-state institutions; no court has found him guilty of any crime.