Hungary's parliament elected Andras Baka, the former head of the Supreme Court, as the country's next president on Tuesday. The 73-year-old jurist and Orban critic replaces Tamas Sulyok, an Orban ally whose term was cut short by constitutional amendment.
Baka's election represents part of Prime Minister Peter Magyar's efforts to dismantle the legacy of Viktor Orban following the new government's victory in April's general elections. Magyar's conservative, pro-European TISZA party holds a commanding majority in parliament. The vote proceeded largely along party lines, with 140 lawmakers voting in favor and six against, while Orban's right-wing Fidesz party and its nationalist KDNP allies boycotted the ballot in protest.
Baka was removed from his Supreme Court position in December 2011, three years before his term was set to expire, shortly after Orban returned to power. The jurist spent roughly two decades as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights before returning to Hungary in 2009. He also briefly served in parliament from 1990 to 1991.
Baka told the AFP news agency last month that extraordinary constitutional measures could be justified in Hungary's case. "In a country governed by the rule of law, such extraordinary measures cannot be used, but Hungary became a captured state under Orban," he said. He characterized officials appointed under Orban's tenure as designed to ensure the regime's survival rather than restrain governmental power.
Speaking to parliament after his election, Baka struck a measured tone toward supporters of the previous government. "There is one thing we certainly cannot do: we cannot build the new Hungary on revenge," he said, vowing to encourage debate and ensure that constitution-making would not become the exclusive project of a single political force.
