{"text":[[{"start":7.65,"text":"Hungary’s parliament has voted to oust the country’s president in a symbolic move as the new government seeks to remove appointees put in place by former prime minister Viktor Orbán.New prime minister Péter Magyar has described Tamás Sulyok, a former constitutional court chief justice, as an Orbán ‘‘puppet’’ who had carried out the agenda of the illiberal leader until he was ousted in April."}],[{"start":31.700000000000003,"text":"“Tamás Sulyok chose Viktor Orbán instead of the Hungarian nation,” Magyar said in a speech before the vote on Monday. He called the move a way to honour a “clear mandate to unwind the previous system.”Sulyok is the highest-ranking Orbán loyalist to be removed by Magyar in his campaign to dismantle the former prime minister’s system. "}],[{"start":52.2,"text":"Since taking power with a two-thirds majority in parliament, he has fired the leaders of state television, key state companies and limited prime ministers to two terms — in effect preventing Orbán’s return to power.Hungary’s parliament also voted to dismiss former chief prosecutor Péter Polt, another Orbán loyalist, as chief justice of the Constitutional Court. It has set term limits for MPs, preventing most Fidesz core members from running again for parliament.Magyar had repeatedly called for the president to resign during his election campaign, and in his victory speech said removing Sulyok and other Orbán loyalists would be among his first priorities. The role of president in Hungary is largely a figurehead, but it has some formal veto powers."}],[{"start":96,"text":"Sulyok rejected the vote and the statements from Magyar, saying they manipulated public opinion. He said that interfering with the president’s mandate caused “exceptional damage to the constitutional order’’. "}],[{"start":107.65,"text":"The president now has five days to sign the bill into law. He could refer it to the constitutional court for procedural reasons. If Sulyok fails to approve the bill, Magyar said he would impeach the president."}],[{"start":120,"text":"Sulyok, 70, was installed in 2024 after his predecessor Katalin Novák — another Fidesz loyalist — resigned when it turned out she had pardoned the accomplice of a convicted child sex offender."}],[{"start":133.3,"text":"That scandal and its cover-up led to the rise of Magyar, a former Fidesz insider who campaigned against what he called the hypocrisy and graft of the Fidesz establishment."}],[{"start":144.15,"text":"Sulyok had kept a low profile during his first two years as president and only began to speak up about constitutional protections after Magyar’s victory."}],[{"start":152.9,"text":"Orbán, who is en route to the US to attend World Cup matches, posted a brief message on Facebook, lamenting the demise of “Democratic Hungary: 1990-2026.”"}],[{"start":163.8,"text":"Analyst Gábor Török said Orbán undermined his message by travelling to the World Cup while claiming that democracy was over in Hungary. "}],[{"start":172.3,"text":"“Viktor Orbán’s political standing suffered more today than Hungarian democracy,’’ Török wrote in a post on Facebook. "}],[{"start":187.05,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783995678_8653.mp3"}