Hungary Chief Justice Asks Orban to Shield Court From Opposition

  • Opposition leader vows to ‘fire’ constitutional court judges
  • Premier has sought to sustain his influence with appointments

Viktor Orban 

Photographer: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

The president of Hungary’s top court asked Prime Minister Viktor Orban to shield justices from an opposition pledge to remove them from office if his rivals win next year’s elections.

A pledge by opposition leaders to void the mandate of Constitutional Court justices is tantamount to a “subversion of the constitutional order,” court President Tamas Sulyok said in an open letter to Orban, the country’s president and parliament speaker.