President Viktor Orbán?

HUNGARY - In Brief 11 Dec 2025 by Istvan Racz

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It looks like the forint market did not like today's Bloomberg article about PM Orbán's possible attempt to strengthen the currently pretty much powerless position of the President of the Republic, planning to take over that position before the election.We think that the presentation of the news was a bit unfortunate, as the possibility that such a thing might happen is actually a long-standing story. Political analysts and legal experts specialised in constitutional law have been warning for a while that this may be on the cards, as there is now a realistic chance that Fidesz might lose the election in April. Indeed, Mr. Orbán is technically in the position to rewrite constitutional law at any time and in largely whatever way he wants. Politically it is much more difficult, of course, but it is only natural to assume that Mr. Orbán is considering alternative scenarios.By the way, he mentioned this topic publicly at least once in recent weeks, saying that the idea of changing for a presidential system came up each time after Fidesz had won an election, but in the end, it was always rejected.Our reaction to this piece of news is that changing for a presidential system is most certainly not Mr. Orbán first choice, given the high political risks associated with it. But should they get desperate in Fidesz, which is not at all evident as yet, nothing could be excluded. It is a well-known fact that Mr. Orbán is a born fighter, who is never prepared to give up.But for a fact, it needs to be stated that for him to take over as President of the Republic, constitutional law should be pretty much fundamentally rewritten, otherwise Mr. Orbán could take over only the current positi...