The Hungarian parliament on Tuesday elected Andras Baká, the former president of the Supreme Court, as the country’s new president.
This is a symbolic step in Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s attempt to dismantle the power bases established by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Baka was elected to the largely ceremonial post with the votes of the ruling center-right TISZA party. MPs from the opposition Fidesz did not participate in the vote.
The previous president of Hungary was Tamas Sulyok. He took office on March 5, 2024, after the resignation of Katalin Novak, and remained in office until July 20 of this year, Reuters writes.
Sulyok was a lawyer and judge, as well as president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary, before becoming head of state. He was considered politically close to the Orbán system, so his departure is presented by the new government of Peter Magyar as one of the changes that mark a break from the previous era.
The new president, Baka, is the former president of the Supreme Court of Hungary and was dismissed from this position in 2011 by decision of the Orban government.
Later, he won a case against Hungary at the European Court of Human Rights regarding the premature termination of his mandate.
Before joining the Supreme Court, Baka served for 17 years as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, from 1991 to 2008. Before that, he had also been a member of the Hungarian Parliament. /Telegraph/