BUDAPEST, July 19 -- Tamas Sulyok, Hungary's head of state, on Saturday signed a constitutional amendment that will end his own presidency before it was due to expire, completing a parliamentary push by Prime Minister Peter Magyar that has, in just over two months, begun dismantling the institutional architecture of the Orban era.

In a video address posted to social media after signing the document, Sulyok cast the act not as capitulation but as constitutionalism. "My signature is the ultimate seal of full and unconditional respect for the duties of the Hungarian president and for the institution of the presidency itself," he said. "I fully adhered to the Hungarian Constitution and never violated it." He acknowledged he had no "constitut...