Ousted by Orbán, back with a vengeance: Hungary’s president András Baka to restore rule of law

In a secret ballot on Tuesday (11 August), the Hungarian parliament elected András Baka, a legal scholar and former president of the Supreme Court, as the country’s president with the votes of 140 MPs, presumably from the Tisza parliamentary group.

The opposition Fidesz and KDNP parliamentary groups did not take part in the vote, while the six MPs from the far-right Mi Hazánk party presumably voted against.

Baka’s term will last until a new constitution is adopted, but for no more than five years.

András Baka (1952), lawyer

In 1978, he obtained a doctorate from the Faculty of Law at ELTE. Until 1990, he worked as a research fellow at the Institute for State and Legal Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; from 1990 to 1998, he was director-general of the College of Public Administration.