Hungary Has a New President — and a Whole New Direction
Hungary's parliament elected András Baka, a 73-year-old former head of the country's Supreme Court, as president on 11 August 2026. The vote was 140 in favour to 6 against, with 146 ballots cast in total The Guardian. Baka replaces Tamás Sulyok, who signed a change to Hungary's constitution in July that ended his own term. The ruling Tisza party formally nominated Baka earlier in August Reuters.
All 51 members of parliament from Fidesz, the party that ran Hungary for 16 years under Viktor Orbán, walked out of the chamber before the vote. They were protesting the removal of Sulyok from the presidency the previous month BBC. That removal was part of a broader rewriting of Hungary's constitution by Prime Minister Péter Magyar's government. Magyar took office in early May after Orbán conceded defeat on 12 April 2026, following a landslide win by the newly formed Tisza party Reuters.
Since taking office, the Magyar government has passed 27 laws and two changes to the constitution. The first change limited the prime minister to two terms in office and members of parliament to three terms. The second change restored the Constitutional Court's power to review laws passed by parliament and strike them down if they conflict with the constitution. The government also cancelled emergency powers that Orbán had used to pass laws without parliament's approval — powers covering migration, Covid, and the war in Ukraine. It shut down the Sovereignty Protection Office, a body created under Orbán, and set up a new office to investigate and prosecute people accused of stealing public money under the former government BBC.
Baka's selection is notable because of his history with Fidesz. The party removed him from his role as head of the Supreme Court back in 2011, when he tried to stop the government from weakening the courts' independence BBC. He then spent 17 years as Hungary's judge at the European Court of Human Rights, a court in Strasbourg that hears cases about human rights violations across Europe BBC. Now he holds the presidency, a role that is mostly ceremonial in normal times but carries constitutional powers during a period of major change.
Under the new constitutional rules, Baka's presidency will likely last only until a new constitution takes effect, or for a maximum of five years BBC. This temporary setup matches the overall speed of change under Magyar. The government has moved fast to take apart the main tools Orbán used to govern — from emergency powers to the Sovereignty Protection Office — while rebuilding institutions that were weakened during Fidesz's 16 years in power.
Baka has also expressed views that put him at odds with parts of the new constitutional order. He disagrees with limiting how many terms members of parliament can serve, arguing that it interferes with voters' right to choose their representatives BBC. That puts him in conflict with one of the two constitutional changes the Magyar government has already passed. Whether this disagreement creates real tension between the president and the government, or stays a matter of personal opinion with little practical effect, will depend on how far the new government goes with further changes and how Baka sees the limits of his role.
The broader picture here is a sweeping rebuild of Hungary's institutions carried out at striking speed. In about three months, the Magyar government has overturned the emergency legal framework that defined Orbán's later years, restructured oversight bodies, imposed term limits on both the prime minister and parliament, and installed as head of state someone Fidesz itself removed from the courts over a decade ago. The Fidesz boycott of the presidential vote signals that the opposition considers the removal of Sulyok and the wider constitutional changes illegitimate, even though those changes were passed by the parliamentary majority Tisza won in the April election.
For those who follow Hungarian politics closely, the order of events matters. Restoring the Constitutional Court's power to oversee parliament, abolishing the Sovereignty Protection Office, and cancelling emergency powers each reverse specific tools Orbán used to strengthen his own authority. The new National Asset Recovery and Protection Office is a fresh tool aimed directly at the previous government's time in office. And Baka's presidency, designed to be temporary, puts an experienced international judge in the ceremonial role during the most intense period of constitutional change Hungary has seen since Fidesz itself rewrote the judiciary and constitution back in 2011–2012.
