In a statement sent to MTI on Sunday, Timea Nagy, president of the Association of Immortal Hungarian Athletes, said the letter was signed by lawyer Gyorgy Antall, Fine Arts Museum director Laszlo Baan, scientists Laszlo Lovasz and Albert Laszlo Barabasi, astronaut Tibor Kapu, violinists Barnabas Kelemen and Katalin Kokas, writers Andras Kepes, Krisztina Toth, Pal Zavada and Lajos Parti Nagy, doctor Istvan Petak, actors Janos Kulka and Pal Macsai and inventor Erno Rubik.

The signatories said they were calling for the election of a president who would create the unity of the entire Hungarian nation.

"We are living in historic times, so we need to elect someone who, in accordance with the original purpose of the presidential institution, can embody the unity of the nation, national pride, leadership by example, and, above all, service to the nation," they said.

"We believe the time has come to place Hungarian constitutional democracy on a secure and consensual foundation," the statement said, adding: "We are convinced that the guarantee of future stability is a comprehensive, broad-based social and political constitutional process."

They added that the current situation is a special opportunity to transcend party political interests.

"Judit Polgar’s person and life path perfectly embody everything our country needs now: her prestige and the affection felt for her at home and abroad transcend parties, and her integrity and moral standing are beyond question," the signatories said.

Boka laments 'Polgar's life's work being sacrificed for Magyar's politics'

Janos Boka, the deputy leader of the opposition Fidesz parliamentary group, said in a video on Facebook on Monday that Judit Polgar’s life work had been sacrificed for Prime Minister Peter Magyar's political ends, in response to Magyar's announcement that he would ask the chess grandmaster to serve as the president of the republic.

Boka said that after Magyar and the Tisza Party had "forcibly and illegally" removed President Tamas Sulyok from office they had promised a broad public consultation on the new candidate.

"However, this consultation never took place, and Magyar announced the candidate on Facebook an hour before the football World Cup final, deciding arbitrarily and alone," Boka said.

The Fidesz politician argued that this was unworthy of the institution of the presidency and of Polgar’s generally respected personality, life work and achievements.

On Sunday, 16 figures from science, culture and sport sent a letter to Agnes Forsthoffer, the speaker of parliament, proposing that Polgar be nominated and elected as president.

Following this, Magyar announced on Facebook that he would meet Polgar on Monday and would consider it an honour if she accepted the proposal.


Meanwhile, Sulyok Signs Controversial Constitutional Amendment While Criticising It

The Sandor Palace, the president's office, published on its website on Saturday the presidential decree SP/1064-12/2026 ordering the promulgation of the 17th amendment to the fundamental law.

In the decree, President Tamas Sulyok wrote that Hungary’s fundamental law’s 17th amendment was adopted by parliament on July 13, and the speaker of parliament signed and sent it to him on the same day.

"While some elements of the amendment, such as the expansion of the Constitutional Court’s powers, are indeed welcome, many others, particularly the unprecedented restriction of voting rights and the removal of certain public office holders through ad hominem legislation, violate the principles of the rule of law, democracy, and the separation of powers," Sulyok said.

He insisted that the 2026 general election had ushered in "an extreme form of verbal abuse and open, direct threats of violence" in public discourse, "based on the idea that certain public office holders, members of parliament, and other public figures can be humiliated without any moral restraint, and that in the performance of their official duties and public activities, they can be freely threatened, instructed, or coerced, completely ignoring the constitutional and legal frameworks and checks."

He said the goal was "to silence, disable, and remove from Hungary’s constitutional system those actors who ... could ensure the representation of diverse legal, professional, and political opinions."

Hungary’s 17th amendment to the fundamental law now also reflected these objectives as a cornerstone of the country’s legal system, he said.

"I see and experience that, at present, a significant part of Hungarian society considers these efforts correct or even inevitable. I naturally respect these feelings and opinions."

Sulyok warned at the same time, "that many are frightened by the concept of power embodied in the 17th amendment to the fundamental law."

 He said he also considered "all provisions that interfere with the system of representative democracy and the separation of powers, disregarding the requirements of the rule of law, incompatible with Hungary’s constitutional principles."

"The Fundamental Law ... defines the president’s constitutional scope for action regarding fundamental law amendments extremely narrowly. The president cannot return the adopted fundamental law amendment to parliament, even in case of disagreement, and can only turn to the Constitutional Court if the procedural requirements ... have not been met. This is not the case here. I am therefore fulfilling my constitutional obligation -- while expressing my serious substantive objections -- by signing Hungary’s 17th amendment to the fundamental law (T/324) today and ordering its promulgation," Sulyok said.

MTI Stock Photo

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881.

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