Hungary Elects András Baka President As He Warns Against Revenge

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s Parliament elected former Supreme Court President András Baka as the nation’s new president Tuesday, marking a dramatic political comeback for a judge removed from office under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Baka, 73, received 140 votes in favor and six against before taking the oath of office in Budapest’s neo-Gothic Parliament building. He was the only candidate.

Lawmakers from Orbán’s Fidesz party and its Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) ally boycotted the vote, protesting the removal of previous President Tamás Sulyok under the government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar.

Although Hungary’s presidency is largely ceremonial, the head of state has significant constitutional powers, including sending legislation back to Parliament for reconsideration or referring it to the Constitutional Court for review. The president is also commander-in-chief of Hungary’s armed forces.

Baka, who also served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, was removed prematurely as president of Hungary’s Supreme Court after Orbán’s government reorganized the judiciary.

PRESIDENT WARNS AGAINST REVENGE

His election came amid a broader effort by Magyar’s governing Tisza Party, which won a commanding parliamentary majority in April, to reshape institutions following the end of Orbán’s long rule.

In a sweeping inaugural address, Baka warned Hungary’s new leadership against political retaliation while sharply criticizing the legacy of the previous government.

“We cannot build the new Hungary on revenge,” Baka told lawmakers, saying those disappointed by political change should not have to abandon their beliefs or political convictions to have an equal place in the country.

“Political change cannot mean that from now on, others must be afraid, remain silent, or feel like outsiders in their own homeland,” he stressed.

Yet Baka also delivered a stinging assessment of the Orbán era, saying Hungary had “wasted a generation’s worth of time” and fallen from being a regional leader following the collapse of Communism to becoming one of Europe’s laggards.

COUNTRY ‘IN CRISIS’

He said Hungary faced severe problems involving the rule of law, society, the economy, public finances, energy, water management, environmental protection and transportation, while healthcare, education and child protection had long been in a “tragic state.”

Baka also raised concerns about what he described as the use of common assets for private interests, citing public procurement, the reorganization of state property, land concentration and a lack of transparency surrounding public money.

“The rule of law functions not only because it has rules, but because people believe these rules apply to everyone without exception,” he said.

However, Baka suggested Hungary’s deepest wound was social, saying years of increasingly bitter politics had divided Budapest from rural Hungary, young from old, believers from non-believers, conservatives from liberals, minorities from the majority, and rich from poor.

He accused previous authorities of targeting civil society groups, journalists, minorities, foreigners and political opponents through hostile political campaigns that encouraged Hungarians to view those with different opinions as enemies.

JUSTICE WITHOUT RETRIBUTION

“This country cannot build a common future while its citizens see each other as enemies,” Baka warned.

The president said suspected violations of the law and the use of public funds should be investigated but stressed that independent courts rather than politicians must ultimately establish guilt.

Baka also appeared to caution Magyar’s new government that replacing one dominant political system with another would not restore democracy.

He said Hungary needs independent courts, constitutional safeguards, a free press, accountable government and, crucially, a political culture in which “a political opponent is not an enemy, criticism is not treason, and compromise is not weakness.”

Baka pledged to act independently of the government and parliamentary majority, saying the president cannot merely sign legislation as a formality or become “the extended arm” of those currently in power.

HUNGARIANS DIVIDED

Hungarians speaking to Worthy News in downtown Budapest reacted with mixed feelings, ranging from optimism that Baka would bring greater independence to fears that he could become another president beholden to the government that helped elect him.

Tibor Szabó, who runs a chocolate and coffee shop in downtown Budapest surrounded by some 850 teddy bears, said Baka appeared to be “a much better” choice than Hungary’s recent presidents. However,  he acknowledged it remained unclear whether the new head of state would fulfill expectations.

Szabó said the most important quality for the president would be political neutrality and an ability to understand Hungarians beyond the capital, including those living in poorer and more remote areas.

“He should be neutral,” Szabó told Worthy News, adding that Baka should consider the concerns of “everybody” — young and old, wealthy and poor, and people living in Budapest as well as the countryside.

Kristina, a 29-year-old private security worker, was also cautiously supportive. She said she did not yet know enough about Baka personally but welcomed the change and hoped he would prove more independent than his predecessor.

FEARS OF NEW ‘PUPPET’

Her friend Gabriel, 29, who works in cybersecurity, pointed to Baka’s previous confrontation with the Orbán government as a reason for optimism, saying he hoped the experience would help Baka remain critical and independent.

But others questioned whether Baka could maintain that independence from Magyar and his powerful Tisza government.

Norbert, a 45-year-old trader, described Baka as a potential “puppet” of the new leadership, suggesting Hungary risked replacing presidents perceived as loyal to Orbán with one loyal to Magyar.

He questioned why Baka, who challenged his own premature removal from the Supreme Court presidency before the European Court of Human Rights, had accepted the presidency following the controversial early departure of Sulyok.

István, a 49-year-old commercial trader, expressed similar skepticism, saying he opposed the way the previous president had been removed and feared Baka would be “controlled” by the new prime minister.

BAKA STRESSES INDEPENDENCE

Their concerns contrasted sharply with Baka’s pledge that the presidency would not become an instrument of the government.

The mixed street reactions also reflected the divisions acknowledged by Baka himself in his inaugural address.

“After the past years, the majority of society now feels liberation and hope, while others feel disappointment and uncertainty,” Baka said. “These feelings coexist in today’s Hungary.”

Baka said his role in representing national unity would therefore require party-political neutrality, though he stressed that neutrality did not mean abandoning democratic and constitutional values.

“For me, therefore, the unity of the nation does not mean that we all think the same thing,” he said. “It means that regardless of our political and ideological differences, we all belong to the same nation with equal dignity and rights.”

NEW CONSTITUTION PLANNED

Baka also urged broad public and professional participation in drafting Hungary’s planned new constitution, warning against making it merely “the constitution of the momentary majority.”

He said an election victory alone could not restore the rule of law and that Hungary required not only independent institutions but a functioning democratic constitutional culture.

The new president also pledged to support efforts to repair Hungary’s strained relations with international allies, saying restoring those ties was “not a matter of courtesy, but a national interest.”

He described Hungary’s European orientation as a historical and cultural reality rather than merely a foreign-policy choice and said the country’s place in Europe derived from its “history, culture, and interests.”

At the same time, Baka said he felt responsibility for ethnic Hungarian communities beyond Hungary’s borders and pledged support for their cultural and linguistic rights in cooperation with neighboring countries and within a European framework.

STATE SERVES PEOPLE

Looking ahead, Baka said Hungary had repeatedly demonstrated throughout its turbulent history that new generations could rebuild the nation after periods of rupture and defeat.

But he warned against trying to recreate an idealized past, saying Hungary could not return to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Horthy era or even the country that emerged immediately after the fall of Communism.

Instead, Baka said Hungary had been given an opportunity to learn from both its achievements and failures and to build a society where a child’s future is not determined by birthplace, teachers and nurses are respected, entrepreneurs seek opportunities rather than political connections, and young Hungarians do not feel compelled to leave the country to build a future.

He also envisioned a nation “where an elderly person does not feel redundant.”

“Because the state does not exist for itself,” Baka concluded. “The state exists for the people.”

Baka was elected for a five-year term, though his mandate could be affected by Hungary’s planned new constitutional order.

His election underscored the scale of the political transformation underway following Orbán’s departure from power, while both Baka’s warnings and the sharply contrasting reactions on Budapest’s streets highlighted the challenge of overcoming Hungary’s deep political divisions.

Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.