Hungary’s Tisa Party Proposes Constitutional Amendment to Limit PM’s Term Hungary’s new rulers have moved from campaign promise to constitutional surgery, targeting the very office they now hold and slamming the door on Viktor Orbán’s comeback.

Late Wednesday, Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisa party used its fresh two‑thirds majority to table a constitutional amendment capping any prime minister’s tenure at eight years in total, counting mandates from May 2, 1990 onward. The change would force a premier to step down after two terms and would bar anyone who has already served eight years from returning to office — a category that plainly includes Orbán.

Earlier the same day, two Tisa MPs, Márton Meletei‑Barna and István Hantosi, formally submitted the text, arguing that limiting time in office was a key pledge of the new government. Their proposal rewrites Article 16 of the Hungarian Constitution so that “for prime minister, a person cannot be elected who has already held the office of prime minister for at least eight years,” explicitly applying the calculation from 1990 onwards. In practice, that means “Viktor Orban more could no longer return to the position of prime minister of Hungary,” and even Magyar himself would be out by 2034 at the latest if re‑elected.

Tisa casts the overhaul as a democratic reset. Magyar has vowed to use his supermajority to “repeal and amend the laws adopted by Orbán’s Fidesz party, including the constitution, in order to restore the democratic balance between the three branches of power.”

The amendment also strikes directly at Orbán‑era state capture. It paves the way to abolish the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty — a body empowered to investigate allegedly anti‑sovereign media and activities — and to take back control of powerful university asset‑management foundations, returning “state property worth hundreds of billions of forints” to the government. A parallel proposal redefines such foundations’ assets as national property and hands founding rights to the cabinet, which “may abolish” them, with the state as legal successor.

Opponents see a power grab dressed up as term‑limits; supporters argue it is the only way to unwind 16 years of entrenched rule and even unlock frozen EU funds tied to academic freedom and governance standards. Either way, one document really could change everything — starting with who is allowed to run the country.