Top court head publishes open letter in defence or rule of law

The views voiced by certain political parties and supported by the intellectual spheres that sympathise with them can be considered “direct and serious attacks on the rule of law and democracy and as such are completely unacceptable in a democracy governed by the rule of law”, Sulyok wrote in the letter addressed to the country’s president, the speaker of parliament and the prime minister and published on the court’s website.

Constitutional courts, as the bodies meant to safeguard the sound functioning of the legal system, are tasked with ensuring that the actions of the branches of power are in line with the provisions of the constitution, he wrote. Like other European constitutional courts, the Hungarian court is a body that in European democracies is generally seen as the guarantee of the constitutional and democratic functioning of the state, he added.

“The Constitutional Court exercises constitutional control over all branches of power but the legislative and executive branches are obligated to ensure its sound functioning together,” Sulyok wrote.