Hungary - Politics

Politics

The members of the National Assembly elect the President of the Republic every five years. The President has a largely ceremonial role, but is nominally the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The President's powers include the nomination of the Prime Minister who is elected by a majority of the votes of the Members of Parliament based on his recommendations.

The Prime Minister has a leading role in the executive branch in accordance with the Hungarian Constitution, which is based on the post-WWII Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Further, the Prime Minister selects Cabinet ministers and has the exclusive right to dismiss them as is the case with the Chancellor of Germany. Cabinet nominees appear before one or more parliamentary committees in consultative open hearings. They must then survive a vote by Parliament and be formally approved by the President.

A constitutional change in force from 1 January 2012 repealed the words "Republic of" from the country's official name.

The unicameral, 386-member National Assembly (Országgyűlés) is the highest organ of state authority and initiates and approves legislation sponsored by the Prime Minister. Its members are elected for a four-year term. 176 members are elected in single-seat constituencies, 152 by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, and 58 so-called compensation seats are distributed based on the number of votes "lost" (i.e., the votes that did not produce a seat) in either the single-seat or the multi-seat constituencies. The election threshold is 5%, but it only applies to the multi-seat constituencies and the compensation seats, not the single-seat constituencies.

A 15-member Constitutional Court has power to challenge legislation on grounds of unconstitutionality.