Viktor Orban critic becomes president in Hungary

Hungary appoints Viktor Orban critic as president.

On August 11, Hungarian lawmakers confirmed Andras Baca, the former head of the Supreme Court, as the country’s new head of state. He was dismissed from his post under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban and is a fierce critic of Orban, Le Monde reported.

The presidency fell vacant in July. At the time, conservative Prime Minister Peter Magyar, a pro-EU figure, had dismissed the former president in an attempt to reduce Orban’s influence over state institutions. The former president was an ally of Orban.

The ruling Tisza party holds a two-thirds majority in parliament. The parliament elected Baca as president with 140 votes in favor and six against. Baca himself served as a judge on the European Court of Human Rights for 17 years. The Tisza party nominated the 73-year-old Baca for the more symbolic post on August 8.

Magyar said Baca’s life was “an example of commitment to the democratic rule of law and constitutional principles.” He also said the Central European country needed to “return to the rule of law and constitutional governance.”

The term of previous president Tamás Sulyok was shortened by a constitutional amendment adopted as part of Magyar’s reforms. The Magyar party won elections in April, ending Orbán’s 16-year rule. Magyar promised to “change the system.”

But human rights observers criticized Sulyok’s removal. They compared the changes to Orbán’s “illiberal” approach to building a system. Orban’s Fidesz party and its ally, the CDU, boycotted the parliamentary vote, calling Sulyok’s removal “atrocious” and “illegal.”

Baca, who was himself dismissed by a similar legal act, did not criticize Sulyok’s removal.

“Such extraordinary measures cannot be used in a constitutional state. But Hungary has become a dependent state under Orban,” he told the media in July.

In 1990, after a period of democratic transition, Baca was elected as an MP on the list of the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). He served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from 1991 to 2008.

In 2009, he was nominated to be president of the Supreme Court. However, he was removed from office in 2012. Because he criticized the move under Orbán to lower the mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 62, calling it a judicial purge.

In July, Magyar offered the presidency to chess legend Judit Polgár. But the prime minister faced criticism for not keeping her promise to consult the public. Polgár later rejected the offer.