Hungary elects Orban critic Andras Baka as first president of new political era

The post became vacant following the contested removal last month of the previous president, an Orban ally, as pro-EU conservative Prime Minister Peter Magyar moves to dismantle his predecessor's lingering influence over state institutions.

Parliament, where the ruling Tisza party holds a two-thirds majority, elected Baka -- who served 17 years as a judge on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) -- with 140 votes in favour and six votes against.

Tisza on Saturday nominated Baka, 73, for the largely ceremonial role.

Magyar said Baka's life served "as an example of commitment to the democratic rule of law and constitutional principles", adding that Hungary needed to be “guided back onto the path of the rule of law and constitutional governance”.

'Captured state'

The previous president, Tamas Sulyok, had his mandate cut short by a constitutional amendment adopted as part of Magyar's reform push. former Hungerian President Tamas Sulyok with former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Magyar's party won April elections, ending nationalist Orban's 16 years in power and promising "system change".

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But rights watchdogs criticised Sulyok's removal, comparing the tinkering to the methods Orban used to build his self-styled "illiberal" system.

Orban's Fidesz party, along with its ally KDNP, boycotted the parliamentary vote, arguing Sulyok's ouster was "tyrannical" and "illegitimate".

Baka has not been critical of Sulyok's removal, despite the fact he was terminated with a similar legislative act.

"In a country governed by the rule of law, such extraordinary measures cannot be used, but Hungary became a captured state under Orban," he told AFP last month.

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State officials like the president "were appointed not to restrain the government's power, but to ensure the political survival of the former system even after an electoral defeat," Baka added.

'Restoration'

Baka's election as president offers a "guarantee that the restoration of liberal democracy will proceed along a clearly defined path", Bulcsu Zsiga, from the Centre for Fair Political Analysis, told AFP.

Apart from a brief stint as a lawmaker after Hungary's democratic transition – he was elected from the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) party list in 1990 – Baka held no other political positions.

He was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1991 to 2008.

In 2009, he was appointed head of the Supreme Court, but was ousted three years later following a restructuring of the judiciary after repeatedly criticising Orban's judicial reforms, including a move to lower the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 62. Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds a pressed conference in Budapest, Hungary, July 22, 2026.

The EU's top court ruled in 2012 that the abrupt reduction in the retirement age violated EU law, while in 2016 the ECHR found that Baka's premature removal had violated his rights, including his freedom of expression.

"His nomination also carries a symbolic meaning, given that Baka went all the way to prove that what happened to him was not really in line with European Union norms," analyst Zsiga said.

Last month, Magyar offered the nomination as president to chess legend Judit Polgar, but she declined after the prime minister faced mounting outrage for not consulting the public as promised.

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Magyar has indicated that Baka would serve only until the Orban-era Basic Law is replaced by a new constitution drafted through broad public participation.

Magyar has estimated that drafting the new constitution would take between one year and 18 months, promising to launch consultations next month.

(with newswires)