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National Assembly (Hungary)

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National Assembly

Országgyűlés
2026–2030 term
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Founded1848
Leadership
Ágnes Forsthoffer, TISZA
since 9 May 2026
Leader of largest
political group
Andrea Bujdosó, TISZA
since 9 May 2026
Leader of 2nd largest
political group
Gergely Gulyás, Fidesz
since 9 May 2026
Structure
Seats199
Incoming Structure of the National Assembly of Hungary
Political groups
Government (141)
  •   TISZA (141)

Opposition (58)

Elections
Partially parallel, partially compensatory voting:
  • 106 First-past-the-post voting seats
  • 93 Party-list proportional representation seats with 5% electoral threshold (D'Hondt method)
Last election
12 April 2026
Meeting place
The National Assembly sits in the Parliament House in Budapest
Hungarian Parliament Building
Lajos Kossuth Square 1
Budapest, H-1055
Hungary
Website
parlament.hu/national-assembly

The National Assembly (Hungarian: Országgyűlés; "Country Assembly") is the parliament of Hungary. It is made up of 199 members elected to 4-year terms. The election of members is based on a system involving both area and list election. Parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to enter the list of members of the assembly (but area winners enter regardless). The assembly has met in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest since 1902.[1]

The National Assembly makes laws and adopt decisions. It elects its own officers, the President of Hungary, the Prime Minister, the members and President of the Constitutional Court, the President of the Supreme Court, the President of the National Judicial Office, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and their deputies, the Governor of the Hungarian National Bank, the Prosecutor General, and the President of the State Audit Office.

The Hungarian Diet was a law-making body in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and later in the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen.

In 1608, Hungary created a two-part law-making body called the Royal Hungarian Diet, which had an upper and a lower house. The upper house included rich nobles and high-ranking religious leaders like archbishops and bishops. The lower house had representatives from regular nobles, religious people, and townspeople: elected officials from noble areas, delegates from free royal cities, and lower Church representatives.

The estates parliament was replaced in 1848 by a parliament based on popular representation. Under a single-round, relative-majority electoral system, Hungarian men who had reached the age of 20 and met the property qualification were eligible to vote.

The assembly has been a unicameral body since 1945.

Under communist rule, the National Assembly was called the highest power in the country. The 1949 Constitution gave it big powers to make laws and watch over things. But like other communist law-making bodies, it mostly just approved decisions already made by the Socialist Workers' Party and its leaders. The Assembly met only twice a year.

The Assembly includes 25 standing committees to debate and report on introduced bills and to overlook the activities of the ministers.

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ Katerina Zacharia, Hellenisms: culture, identity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008, p. 237 ISBN 978-0-7546-6525-0