Hungary’s Constitutional Court has rejected a petition submitted by Fidesz challenging the constitutional amendment concerning public interest asset management foundations, known as KEKVAs.
The court dismissed the petition without examining its substance, ruling that it did not have the jurisdiction to review the challenged constitutional provision. The decision concerns the 16th amendment to Hungary’s Fundamental Law, adopted under the new Tisza government,
which abolished the public interest asset management foundations into which the previous Orbán government had transferred thousands of billions of forints in state assets.
Constitutional Court says it lacks jurisdiction
According to the Constitutional Court’s decision, the full bench rejected the Fidesz petition because the court lacks the necessary jurisdiction to carry out a substantive review of constitutional amendments. The issue stems from the Fourth Amendment to Hungary’s Fundamental Law in 2013, when
the Fidesz-led parliamentary majority removed the Constitutional Court’s power to conduct substantive constitutional reviews of amendments to the Fundamental Law.
Since then, the court has generally been limited to examining whether constitutional amendments were adopted in accordance with the required procedural rules, rather than assessing their substantive constitutional content.
Fidesz had argued in its petition that the disputed provision did not establish a general constitutional institution for the future. Instead, the party claimed that it introduced transitional rules specifically concerning identifiable foundations that were already operating when the amendment entered into force.
The Constitutional Court nevertheless concluded that it could not examine the substance of the challenge.
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Two constitutional judges dissent
The decision was not unanimous. Outgoing Constitutional Court President Péter Polt and Constitutional Court Judge Tünde Handó issued separate opinions, arguing that the petition should have been examined on its merits.
Their dissent sets them apart from the majority of the court, which considered itself unable to rule substantively on the constitutional amendment.
The decision is particularly significant given the political and financial importance of the KEKVAs. Under the previous government, substantial amounts of public assets were transferred to such foundations, including assets connected to Hungarian universities and other public interest institutions.
Separate decision on Sulyok still pending
The Constitutional Court has also been asked to consider another politically significant constitutional amendment. According to 24.hu, the court has not yet ruled on the challenge seeking to annul the constitutional amendment that ended President Tamás Sulyok’s mandate. A decision on that case has been postponed.
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