Hungary’s parliament voted overwhelmingly on Monday to amend the constitution, imposing a cumulative eight-year limit on the office of prime minister. The measure, passed with 135 votes in favour, 50 against and six abstentions, applies retroactively to all premiers since 1990. In practice, it disqualifies only one person: Viktor Orbán, who governed for sixteen years across two stints before being ousted in April’s general election. The vote marks a decisive institutional break with the Orbán era, embedding a safeguard against the long-term personal rule that critics say defined his tenure.

The amendment was a central campaign promise of the new prime minister, Péter Magyar, whose pro-European conservative coalition swept to power with a two-thirds parliamentary supermajority. That commanding margin has enabled Magyar to move swiftly on constitutional changes that would otherwise have been impossible. Viewed from Brussels, the term-limit provision is a tangible signal that Budapest is serious about restoring checks and balances systematically eroded under Orbán’s illiberal model. Magyar has framed the overhaul as a ‘regime change’, and the amendment is only one element of a broader legislative blitz aimed at dismantling the previous government’s centralised control over the judiciary, media and civil society.

The constitutional manoeuvre unfolded against a backdrop of escalating recriminations between the former and current leaders. Magyar recently accused Orbán’s cabinet of having secretly planned to construct a migrant detention camp, despite its fiercely anti-immigration public rhetoric. Orbán, in a defiant interview, dismissed the allegation as ‘the biggest lie’ of his government and insisted that no such camp existed. He did, however, acknowledge that his administration had employed ‘tactics’ to outmanoeuvre Brussels on migration, adding wryly that ‘they are not stupid either’. The exchange, widely covered in Russian media, underscores the deep mistrust that still divides Hungary’s political class and highlights the contested legacy of Orbán’s confrontational stance towards the EU.

Beyond barring Orbán, the amendment opens a path to further dismantling the institutional apparatus of his rule. Hungarian outlets report that the government is preparing to dissolve the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, a controversial agency accused of surveilling political opponents. Analysts in London see this as part of a systematic effort to unwind the previous regime’s centralised power structures. Viewed from Washington, the rapid pace of reform is met with cautious optimism, though questions linger about the durability of Magyar’s coalition and the risk of a populist backlash. In Moscow, where Orbán was often regarded as a sympathetic interlocutor, the constitutional change is being reported with a note of finality, effectively closing the chapter on a leader who frequently disrupted EU consensus on Russia.

The term-limit provision also binds Magyar himself, meaning he would be unable to seek re-election after 2034—a self-limiting gesture intended to contrast sharply with Orbán’s personalised rule. Yet the new prime minister faces formidable challenges: a deeply polarised electorate, an economy still reliant on EU funds partially frozen over rule-of-law disputes, and a vocal Orbán who, though barred from the premiership, remains a potent force in Hungarian politics. Whether the amendment marks the definitive end of the Orbán era or merely a new phase in a protracted struggle for Hungary’s democratic identity is a question that will dominate the country’s politics for years to come.