Former Strasbourg judge András Baka elected Hungarian president as transitional figure

Hungary's parliament elected former European Court of Human Rights judge András Baka as president on Tuesday, a vote that underscores both the scale of the political rupture since May and the uncertainties that lie ahead. The tally was 140 to 6. All 51 MPs from Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party left the chamber before ballots were cast, protesting the removal last month of their preferred candidate, Tamás Sulyok.

A transitional mandate with teeth

Baka's presidency is designed to be temporary. Under the constitutional amendment that enabled his election, he will remain in office only until a new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years. That clause reflects the governing Tisza party's intention to replace the 2011 basic law entirely, a document drafted under Orbán that critics say entrenched executive power and weakened checks and balances.

The transitional label, however, should not be mistaken for weakness. Baka arrives with 17 years on the bench in Strasbourg, where he adjudicated cases against member states including his own. His removal as president of Hungary's Supreme Court in 2011 came after he resisted Fidesz efforts to curtail judicial independence. That history makes him an awkward figure for a new majority that might have preferred a pliant head of state.

The judge who would not yield

"I am not a political man," Baka told the BBC last month. "I got involved in politics through my professional, legal way of thinking." That self-description aligns with a career spent applying the European Convention on Human Rights rather than negotiating coalition agreements. In the same interview he criticised the new term limits for MPs, calling them an intrusion on voters' right to choose their representatives freely. The comment signalled early that he would not simply rubber-stamp the government's reform programme.

His address to parliament on Tuesday reinforced that independence. "We cannot build the new Hungary on revenge," he said, acknowledging that while a majority feels liberation, others face disappointment and uncertainty. "In a democratic society, this is not an anomaly, but a natural state of affairs." He also warned against the Hungarian habit of investing trust in powerful leaders: "The state is not there for itself. It is there for the people."

Dismantling the Orbán architecture at speed

Since taking office in early May, Péter Magyar's government has moved with remarkable velocity. Twenty-seven laws have passed, alongside two constitutional amendments. The three states of emergency, on migration, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, which Orbán used to govern by decree, have been revoked. The Sovereignty Protection Office, widely seen as a tool to harass critical journalists and non-governmental organisations, has been abolished.

In its place stands a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office with sweeping powers to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of misappropriating state funds under the previous administration. Fidesz has labelled the new government a "tyranny", a charge that carries a certain irony given the party's own record of using state organs to target opponents.

Media blackout and the battle for public broadcasting

Public service radio and television have been off air since 9 July while news operations are overhauled. The stated aim is to restore editorial independence after years in which the broadcaster functioned as a government mouthpiece. The silence on the airwaves is conspicuous, and the revamp will be an early test of whether the new leadership can resist the temptation to replace one form of partisan control with another.

Constitutional amendments sixteen and seventeen have introduced term limits, two for the prime minister and three for MPs, and restored the Constitutional Court's power to review acts of parliament, a competence stripped away in 2013. These changes alter the structural incentives of Hungarian politics, though their durability depends on the constitution that eventually replaces the current one.

Where Baka and the government may collide

The president's opposition to parliamentary term limits is only the most visible point of friction. His Strasbourg jurisprudence suggests a broad view of procedural fairness and institutional autonomy that could clash with a government determined to move fast. The asset recovery office, for instance, wields prosecutorial powers that may test the boundaries of due process. Baka's constitutional role includes referring legislation to the Constitutional Court and, in limited circumstances, vetoing laws. Whether he uses those tools will shape the credibility of the transition.

There is also the question of international scrutiny. Hungary remains under an Article 7 procedure for breaches of EU values, and the European Commission has frozen billions in cohesion funds over rule-of-law concerns. The new government argues its reforms address those concerns. Brussels will judge the substance, not the rhetoric. Baka's background in the European human rights system gives him a fluency in that conversation that few Hungarian politicians possess.

The constitutional horizon

Baka promised the broadest possible debate on the new constitution. That process will define the post-Orbán settlement more than any single law. The 2011 constitution was adopted with a two-thirds Fidesz majority and no opposition input. A genuinely inclusive drafting process would be a departure, but it requires time, political capital and a willingness to compromise that the current majority has not yet demonstrated.

The five-year ceiling on Baka's term creates a deadline. If the new constitution is not ready by 2031, a fresh presidential election will be required under whatever rules then exist. That clock may concentrate minds, or it may encourage the government to rush a text through before the deadline, replicating the very flaws it claims to correct.