‘CEREMONIAL ROLE’:
Former Supreme Court chief Andras Baka was nominated on Saturday by the ruling party, which has the two-thirds majority required for his election
Hungarian lawmakers were yesterday expected to elect former Supreme Court chief Andras Baka, who was fired under former prime minister Viktor Orban, as the nation’s next head of state.The post became vacant following the contested removal last month of the previous president, an Orban ally, as pro-EU conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar pushes to loosen his predecessor’s lingering hold over state institutions.Magyar’s ruling Tisza party on Saturday nominated Baka — who served 17 years as a judge on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) — for the largely ceremonial role.
Andras Baka, Hungarian jurist, former judge of the European Court of Human Rights and former president of the Hungarian Supreme Court, poses for a photo on the sidelines of an interview with Agence France-Presse on Feb. 8, 2022, in Budapest.
Magyar said Baka’s life served “as an example of commitment to the democratic rule of law and constitutional principles,” as the central European country needs to be “guided back onto the path of the rule of law and constitutional governance.”Tisza has the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to elect Baka, 73, on the first round without any opposition support.
