A parliament voting to remove its own president is the kind of headline you read twice. Hungary did exactly that on Monday.

Lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment to remove president Tamás Sulyok from office, according to the Washington Times. Sulyok was widely seen as a loyalist of Viktor Orbán, the former prime minister who lost power in April after 16 years, per the BBC.

So the government that ended Orbán's run is now reaching into the top of the state and pulling out one of his people. On purpose. Through the constitution.

What actually happened

The amendment does two things, per the Washington Times: it removes Sulyok, and it makes political reforms aimed at dismantling the system built by Orbán, whom the outlet describes as an autocratic former prime minister.

That's the part worth slowing down on. This isn't a resignation or a term running out. It's the legislature rewriting the constitution to take a sitting head of state out of the chair.

Doing it by constitutional amendment is a signal in itself. You don't reach for that tool for a routine reshuffle. You reach for it when you want the change to be hard to undo.

Why it matters

Orbán didn't just win elections — he reshaped the Hungarian state around himself over 16 years, per the BBC. A new government can win a vote and still inherit that machinery: loyalists in institutions, rules written to favour the old side.

Removing an Orbán-aligned president is the most concrete move yet to start unwinding that. It tells you the new majority isn't only interested in governing — it's interested in taking apart what came before.

That has a Brussels dimension. Orbán spent years clashing with the EU over rule-of-law and democratic standards. A Hungarian government that frames itself as reversing his system changes the tone of that relationship overnight — potentially turning the EU's most reliable internal antagonist into something closer to a partner.

The line to watch

Here's the tension. Removing an entrenched loyalist to restore normal institutions is one story. Rewriting the constitution to remove a president you don't like is, structurally, the same move autocrats use — just pointed the other way.

Hypothesis: this is the opening step of a broader dismantling of Orbán's system rather than a one-off. Supporting it: the sources say the amendment includes reforms aimed at dismantling that system, not just the removal of one man, per the Washington Times. Against it: the material provided here doesn't spell out what those reforms are, who replaces Sulyok, or on what timeline — so the scale is still an open question, not an established fact.

What to watch next: who fills the presidency, what the accompanying reforms actually change, and how the EU responds to a Hungary that now says it's cleaning up the very thing Brussels spent years fighting.

Should you care? If you followed the EU's long standoff with Orbán, this is the moment the other side starts writing the rules — and the honest catch is that it's doing it with the same instrument he used. Watch whether it stays reform or tips into payback.