Europe · 11 August, 2026 · 2 min read
Hungary’s Parliament Elects András Baka as President After Viktor Orbán’s Era
András Baka elected Hungary's president by Parliament with 140 votes for and six against. Former Supreme Court chief justice András Baka, an Orbán critic, leads post-Orbán transition.
Whether Sulyok is still treated as head of state by Fidesz.
4 of 5 outlets skipped it: baka will be sworn in on Aug. 19.
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Shows how outlets depict Fidesz’s dispute over legitimacy.
Baka elected president
Hungary’s Parliament elected András Baka as president on Tuesday, with the vote framed as the start of a political era defined by the end of Viktor Orbán’s time in office.
“Hungary’s Parliament elected this Tuesday András Baka as the new president of the country.”
Baka, born in 1952 in Budapest, was elected as the candidate of Tisza, the party led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, and he received the backing of 140 of the 199 deputies in Parliament.
In contrast, six lawmakers from the far-right party Our Homeland voted against, while the 53 representatives of Fidesz abstained from participating in the vote, according to El Informador.
The election was also described as part of Hungary’s democratic regeneration process, with Baka taking office after being dismissed from the Supreme Court in 2011 for challenging measures promoted by Orbán that were considered an attack on judicial independence.
European legal record
Baka’s European legal experience was central to how his candidacy was presented, with El Informador saying he was elected as Hungary’s judge to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 1991 and worked there until 2007.
El Nuevo Diario added that in 2009, with the backing of the parliamentary majority, he became president of Hungary’s Supreme Court, and that in 2011 he was dismissed after questioning Orbán-era policies related to growing governmental control over the judiciary.
The European Court of Human Rights later ruled on his dismissal, and El Informador said that in 2016 the court ruled the dismissal violated Community norms.
In a recent interview, Baka asserted that “whoever has a two-thirds majority in Parliament cannot do whatever they want,” a line repeated in both El Informador and Infobae as part of his view of democratic limits.
Ceremonial role, transition
The presidency was described as largely ceremonial, with little executive contribution, while Magyar’s plan tied Baka’s term to a constitutional process that would begin in autumn.
“The role of the president in Hungary, with a five-year mandate, is essentially ceremonial with hardly any executive contributions.”
El Informador said the role of the president in Hungary, with a five-year mandate, is essentially ceremonial with hardly any executive contributions, and that Magyar announced the new president would hold the office until the drafting of a new Constitution.
El País reported that Baka would take office on the eighth day after the vote, i.e., on the next August 19, and that he said “We cannot build a new Hungary based on vengeance.”
Euronews also said the head of state has the power to return bills to Parliament or refer them to the Constitutional Court for review, while it reported that Fidesz reiterated it deems the presidential election illegitimate and still views Tamás Sulyok as head of state.E