National Assembly

Országgyűlés
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker
László Kövér, Fidesz
since 6 August 2010
First Officer
Márta Mátrai, Fidesz
since 1 January 2013
Deputy Speakers
Sándor Fazekas, Fidesz (for legislation)
Sándor Lezsák, Fidesz
István Jakab, Fidesz
János Latorcai, KDNP
Lajos Oláh, DK
Dóra Dúró, MHM
Leader of largest
political group
Máté Kocsis, Fidesz
since 8 May 2018
Leader of 2nd largest
political group
István Simicskó, KDNP
since 2 May 2022
Structure
Seats 199
Current Structure of the National Assembly of Hungary
Political groups
Outgoing legislature

Government (Fifth Orbán Government) (135)

  •   Fidesz–KDNP (135)[a]

Supported by (1)

  •   German minority (1)

Opposition (63)

  •   DK (15)
  •   MSZP (10)[b]
  •   Momentum (9)[b]
  •   Jobbik (7)
  •   MH (6)
  •   Párbeszéd (6)[c]
  •   Ind. (10)[d]
Incoming Structure of the National Assembly of Hungary
Political groups
Incoming legislature

Government (Magyar Government) (137)

  •   TISZA (137)

Opposition (62)

  •   Fidesz–KDNP (56)
  •   MH (6)
Elections
Voting system
Partially parallel, partially compensatory voting:
  • 106 FPTP seats
  • 93 PR 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, lit. 'Country Assembly' [ˈorsaːɡɟyːleːʃ]) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a mixed-member majoritarian representation with partial compensation via transfer votes and mixed single vote; involving single-member districts and one list vote; parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to gain list seats. The Assembly includes 25 standing committees to debate and report on introduced bills and to supervise the activities of the ministers. The Constitutional Court of Hungary has the right to challenge legislation on the grounds of constitutionality.

Since 1902, the assembly has met in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest.

The current members are the members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2022–2026).

History

The Diet of Hungary[1] (Hungarian: Országgyűlés) was a legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s,[2] and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period. The name of the legislative body was originally "Parlamentum" during the Middle Ages, the "Diet" expression gained mostly in the Early Modern period.[3] It convened at regular intervals with interruptions during the period of 1527 to 1918, and again until 1946.

In 1608, a bicameral legislature was enacted as the Royal Hungarian Diet, dividing the main board and the lower board (the board of envoys). Members of the main board (the upper house) were the high nobles and high priests (archbishops and bishops). The lower board was attended by representatives of the common nobility, clergy and civil order: elected representatives of the noble county, delegates of the free royal cities and representatives of the lower Church representatives.[4]

Approximately 10% of the total voting age population could vote for the elected delegates of the lower board (5% county nobility, 5% residents of free royal cities). The election of the noble delegates (1 delegate from each county) took place in the county delegate elections, after a long, noisy, courtier campaign, at the county hall. Delegates received voting instructions from county assemblies.

The parliament consisted of about 500 people in the 17th–18th centuries.

The articles of the 1790 diet set out that the diet should meet at least once every 3 years, but, since the diet was called by the Habsburg monarchy, this promise was not kept on several occasions thereafter. As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, it was reconstituted in 1867.

The Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") was used to designate the political elite which had participation in the diet, consisting of the nobility, the Catholic clergy, and a few enfranchised burghers,[5][6] regardless of language or ethnicity.[7]

Today's parliament is still called the Országgyűlés, as in royal times, but is called the 'National Assembly' to distance itself from the historical royal diet. Under communist rule, the National Assembly was the sole branch of government in Hungary, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it; the Constitution of 1949, initially drafted by the communists, referred to the Assembly as the "supreme body of state power" (after 1972: "supreme body of state power and popular representation"), a constitutional designation which was retained after the end of communism and removed only by the Fidesz-drafted Fundamental Law of Hungary in 2012. The democratic character of the Hungarian parliament was reestablished with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the communist dictatorship in 1989.

Historical composition of the National Assembly since 1990

  MSZP
  Párbeszéd
  DK
  Együtt
  LMP
  MLP
  SZDSZ
  Momentum
  Tisza
  Fidesz
  KDNP
  MDF
  FKGP
  MIÉP
  Jobbik
  MH
  Német
  Others
  Independent
1990[e]
33 94 22 21 164 44 2 6
1994
209 70 20 22 38 26 1
1998
134 24 148 17 48 14 1
2002
178 20 164 24
2006
190 20 141 23 11 1
2010
59 16 227 36 47 1
2014[f]
29 1 4 3 5 1 117 16 23
2018
15 5 9 1 8 117 16 26 1 1
2022
10 6 15 5 10 117 18 10 6 1 1
2026
136 57 6

Speakers of the National Assembly of Hungary

Main article: List of speakers of the National Assembly (Hungary)

Notes

  1. ^
    •   Fidesz (116)
    •   KDNP (19)
  2. ^ a b
    •   Ind. (1)
  3. ^
    •   Szikra (1)
    •   Ind. (3)
  4. ^
    •   LMP (3)
    •   NP (1)
  5. ^ Between 1990 and 2014 the number of seats were 386.
  6. ^ Since 2014 the number of seats are 199.

References

  1. ^ András Gergely, Gábor Máthé: The Hungarian state: thousand years in Europe (published in 2000)
  2. ^ Elemér Hantos: The Magna Carta Of The English And Of The Hungarian Constitution (1904)
  3. ^ Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen Brabourne (4th Baron): The political evolution of the Hungarian nation: (Volume I. in 1908)
  4. ^ 1608. évi (k. u.) I. törvénycikk * elősorolása annak, hogy „karoknak” és „rendeknek” kiket kell nevezni és hogy a közönséges országgyüléseken kiknek legyen helye és szavazata[Article I of the Act of 1608 (k. u.) *  listing who should be called "faculties" and "orders" and who should have a seat and vote in ordinary national assemblies].https://net.jogtar.hu/ezer-ev-torveny?docid=60800201.TV&searchUrl=/ezer-ev-torvenyei%3Fpagenum%3D16
  5. ^ John M. Merriman, J. M. Winter, Europe 1789 to 1914: encyclopedia of the age of industry and empire, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006, p. 140, ISBN 978-0-684-31359-7
  6. ^ Tadayuki Hayashi, Hiroshi Fukuda, Regions in Central and Eastern Europe: past and present, Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 2007, p. 158, ISBN 978-4-938637-43-9
  7. ^ Katerina Zacharia, Hellenisms: culture, identity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008, p. 237 ISBN 978-0-7546-6525-0

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