At the Strasbourg plenary on Monday, Patriots for Europe protested against the European Parliament’s silence over the constitutional reforms pushed by the new Hungarian government of Péter Magyar.
The sovereigntist group called out Brussels, so active for years against Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, for avoiding to scrutinise with the same rigour an operation that goes blatantly against the rule of law.
Spanish MEP Jorge Buxadé, head of the VOX delegation, a member of the Patriots group in the European Parliament, spoke at the opening of the plenary session to denounce what he described as “a real institutional assault” in Hungary. According to Buxadé, Magyar, whose Tisza party is a member of the European People’s Party in the EP, is applying “ad personam laws” and “laws with retroactive effect” against officeholders linked to the previous political cycle.
The complaint does not come out of nowhere. The new Hungarian executive has proposed constitutional changes to remove President Tamás Sulyok and alter the institutional balance inherited from the Orbán era.
Criticism does not only come from the Right or political parties. Human Rights Watch warned on June 25 that plans to remove the president and the head of the Constitutional Court lack sufficient due-process guarantees. Reuters also reported on the criticism from Hungarian civil rights organisations against an amendment that would allow the removal of the president and introduce term limits for MPs.
Buxadé compared the current silence with the pressure maintained against Orbán. “For seven years we have endured, almost every week, debates manufactured by Soros’s or Brussels’ disinformation machine. But now this Chamber remains silent,” he said in his prepared remarks, but President Roberta Metsola cut him off, Buxadé’s reported on social media.
🔴 En Hungría, ante el silencio cómplice de Bruselas y la autocensura más brutal de todos los medios de comunicación, se está dando Péter Magyar, miembro del Partido popular europeo un auténtico asalto institucional sin parangón en las modernas “democracias” europeas.
The accusation leaves little room for doubt: the rule of law is invoked in Brussels as a universal principle, but applied selectively, depending on the political colour of the government concerned.
BQ: It is unacceptable that Brussels remains silent while Péter Magyar is dismantling Hungary’s constitutional democracy.
The group added that, after years of debates on Hungary, there is now “complete silence” while the right to stand for election is being restricted through retroactive legislation and the President of the Republic and constitutional judges are being removed.
🇭🇺 | It is unacceptable that Brussels remains silent while Péter Magyar is dismantling Hungary's constitutional democracy.
For years, the European Parliament debated #Hungary almost every week. Now, as the new government seeks to restrict the right to stand for election through… pic.twitter.com/jO03jEh8KR
One of the most sensitive measures proposed by the Magyar government is the two-term limit for prime ministers, applied to all periods since May 1990, which would in practice prevent Orbán’s return. The legal basis for that move, an amendment to the constitution, was approved with 135 votes in favour by Tisza’s supermajority.
The political contrast is unavoidable. In 2018, the European Parliament triggered the Article 7 procedure against Hungary over alleged risks to the rule of law. In November 2025, the Parliament was still denouncing democratic deterioration under Orbán.
Now, with Magyar aligned with Brussels’ priorities, the institutional language has cooled. Tthe battle against Orbán was never merely legal. It was ideological. And the rule of law, when convenient, becomes a pretext.
Javier Villamor is a Spanish journalist and analyst. Based in Brussels, he covers NATO and EU affairs at europeanconservative.com. Javier has over 17 years of experience in international politics, defense, and security. He also works as a consultant providing strategic insights into global affairs and geopolitical dynamics.
