Updated

Hungary's president says rapidly deteriorating public discourse risks demolishing the country's achievements since the 1990 return to democracy.

President Janos Ader, speaking Monday after his induction ceremony in Parliament, says politicians should not follow the example of tabloid publications and involve each other's families and sexual or religious identities in their disputes.

Ader, re-elected in March by lawmakers to a second five-year term, has himself been the target of pointed, sometimes crude criticism because of his decision to not challenge recent amendments to the law on higher education which could force Central European University, founded by billionaire George Soros in 1991, to leave Budapest.

The opposition Socialist Party did not attend Ader's induction, saying he failed to live up to his office's stated principle to represent all Hungarians.