BUDAPEST, July 21. /TASS/. Hungarian opposition lawmakers were absent from parliament session when it was addressed by speaker Agnes Forsthoffer, who is currently serving as the country’s acting president, in protest against the ousting of President Tamas Sulyok initiated by the new government of Peter Magyar.

As follows from the broadcast on the parliament’s website, the seats of the deputies from the Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Alliance party and their junior coalition partners, the Christian Democrats, were empty at the beginning of the session. Only representatives of the ruling Tisza party and six of their colleagues from the ultra-conservative Our Homeland Movement party were present.

"The farce in parliament continues. The coalition of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People's Party is not participating in it. Peter Magyar has forcibly removed Tamas Sulyok from office. As a result, the current situation is illegitimate, and Agnes Forsthofer's speech changes nothing," Janos Boka, former Minister for European Union Affairs and now deputy leader of the Fidesz parliamentary faction, wrote on his Facebook account (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist).

Hungarian parliament speaker Agnes Forsthoffer took over as acting president on July 20. She was entrusted with these duties after President Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment envisaging his resignation after it had been passed by lawmakers. He slammed this document as unconstitutional and anti-democratic but signed it because, in his words, he had "exhausted all options" to oppose Magyar, who had been seeking Sulyok’s resignation, claiming that he had turned a blind eye to the Orban government’s office abuses.

The election of Hungary’s new president is to be organized within the next 30 days. Under national law, the president is elected by parliament where the ruling Tisza party holds more than two thirds of seats. The Fidesz and Christian Democrats factions have said that they woiul not take part "in this show."