Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar yesterday issued a public ultimatum to President Tamás Sulyok: step down voluntarily by 31 May, or you'll be forced out. All of it in a written Facebook post, as a response to an interview in which Sulyok said he had no intention of resigning because he works within the constitution.

It's an unusual spectacle - a prime minister publicly demanding the resignation of a president, when in most European systems the president is practically a symbolic figure. But Magyar is clear that the relationship isn't working. "Sulyok failed the test of human, legal and political capability over the course of his inglorious two-year mandate," he wrote in the post.

Behind the facade of polite debate, something blunter is hiding. According to Magyar, at their first meeting Sulyok didn't refuse to resign - he only said he'd think about it. At the second meeting he asked whether it would be "appropriate" to discuss the conditions for resignation with the justice minister. Now that the media have made it visible, the president looks like he has a completely different position.

Sulyok for his part argues that there is no legal basis for resignation. "I act strictly within the constitutional perimeter," he said. To his credit, in European terms that's correct - the Hungarian president has no obligation to resign just because the prime minister demands it. But the political signal is what matters: the prime minister no longer trusts the head of state. When that happens in a country that even without this sits on the edge of major shifts in the EU - then the story has real consequences.

For a Balkan context this is a familiar script. North Macedonia 15 years ago saw the same kind of open conflict between PM and president, and we all know how it ended. Hungary is now waiting to see whether Sulyok will withdraw, or whether something worse will happen to him - an investigation, a misconduct procedure, or simply blocking all state functions. Magyar ended the letter with "Mr President, you have to go. And you will go". 31 May is next week.