Hungary's parliament elected András Baka, a 73-year-old former supreme court chief and critic of Viktor Orbán, as the country's new president on Tuesday — completing a controversial shake-up of the head of state position that's drawn comparisons to the strongman tactics Orbán himself once used.
The ruling Tisza party, which holds a two-thirds majority, pushed through Baka's appointment with 140 votes in favour and six against. Orbán's Fidesz party and its ally KDNP boycotted the vote entirely, calling the removal of the previous president "tyrannical" and "illegitimate."
Constitutional Overreach or Democratic Renewal?
Baka's elevation follows a constitutional amendment adopted last month that cut short the mandate of Tamás Sulyok, the sitting president. Prime Minister Péter Magyar — whose Tisza party won April's elections in a landslide, ending Orbán's 16 years in power — has framed the move as necessary to restore the rule of law. He said Baka's life served "as an example of commitment to the democratic rule of law and constitutional principles" and that Hungary needs to be "guided back onto the path of the rule of law and constitutional governance."
But rights watchdogs have criticised Sulyok's removal, comparing Magyar's methods to the very system he claims to be dismantling. The move raises uncomfortable questions about whether constitutional norms are being bent in the name of reform — or whether Magyar is simply replacing one form of executive dominance with another.
Baka himself acknowledged the tension. "In a country governed by the rule of law, such extraordinary measures cannot be used, but Hungary became a captured state under Orbán," he said. He added that 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."
A Symbolic Appointment
Baka isn't a career politician. He served briefly as a lawmaker after Hungary's democratic transition in 1990, elected from the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum's party list, but otherwise held judicial rather than political positions. From 1991 to 2008, he was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
In 2009, he was nominated as head of the Supreme Court. But three years later, he was ousted after condemning an Orbán-era move to reduce the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 62 — a change Baka called a judicial purge. Both the European Union and the United States called the age-limit reduction illegal. In 2016, the ECHR ruled that Baka's dismissal amounted to a violation of his freedom of expression.
Bulcsu Zsiga, from the Centre for Fair Political Analysis, said installing Baka signals a "guarantee that the restoration of liberal democracy will proceed along a clearly defined path." He added: "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."
A Temporary Presidency
Magyar has indicated Baka won't serve a full term. The new president is expected to remain in office only until Hungary completes a process to replace the Orbán-era Basic Law with a new constitution drafted through public participation. Magyar has estimated rewriting the constitution would take one or one and a half years, and he's promised to launch consultations on it next month.
Last month, Magyar offered the presidency to chess legend Judit Polgar, but she declined after the prime minister faced mounting outrage for not consulting the public as promised — a misstep that highlighted the gap between Magyar's democratic rhetoric and his governing practice.
Why This Matters:
Hungary's political transition raises a fundamental question about constitutional order: can you restore the rule of law by breaking it? Magyar's decision to cut short a sitting president's mandate — using the same supermajority power Orbán once wielded — sets a dangerous precedent, regardless of the stated intent. Baka's appointment may be symbolically resonant, but the process that brought him to office undermines the very norms Magyar claims to defend. For European partners watching closely, the lesson is uncomfortable: Hungary's new government talks like a liberal democracy but is governing like a revolutionary movement. The promise to rewrite the constitution within 18 months adds urgency — and risk. Constitutional reform requires broad consensus, not speed. If Magyar rushes the process or marginalises opposition voices, he'll replicate Orbán's mistakes under a different flag. Hungary's partners in Brussels and national capitals should be clear-eyed: democratic restoration isn't measured by who holds power, but by whether power is constrained.