András Baka is an internationally recognised legal scholar, who began his career at the Institute for Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, then became director general of the College of Public Administration. The peak of his international judicial career came when he served for two terms, between 1991 and 2008, as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. On his return home, in 2009, parliament elected him president of the Supreme Court. The second Orbán government, which came to power in 2010 with a constitution-making majority, removed him by renaming the Supreme Court as the Curia, thereby formally creating a new institution and appointing a new head to lead it.
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Baka subsequently won a case against the Hungarian state at the European Court of Human Rights, which found that his rights to a fair trial and to freedom of expression had been violated. He has been a regular voice on rule-of-law issues in Hungary and abroad. He is an independent-minded, somewhat old-school lawyer, and Hungary has had several presidents of this type. His ability to embody national unity may be complicated by the fact that he has been an outspoken critic of the Orbán system both at home and internationally.
Powerless presidents instead of symbols of national unity
Before the elections, Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar had already indicated that, if they secured a constitution-making majority, they would remove most of the high public dignitaries appointed by Fidesz, with the exception of central bank governor Mihály Varga. He argued that these dignitaries were loyal Fidesz party foot soldiers who had failed to fulfil their constitutional duties and whose aim after the election would be to obstruct the work of the Tisza government.
In the Hungarian system the president of the republic primarily plays a ceremonial role and has little independent political room for manoeuvre. Under Fidesz rule, however, the presidents did not use even this limited legal and communicative space, instead operating in parallel with the government and cooperating with it in every respect.
During the period of government from 2010 to 2016, only János Áder, a political veteran of the party, managed to serve the two terms available to him in full.
László Sólyom, who had been elevated to the post by Fidesz while it was still in opposition and who projected an independent political and legal profile, was not elected for a second term. His successor, Pál Schmitt, a former Fidesz vice president, fell over a plagiarism scandal. János Áder then became president, and after his second term he was followed by Katalin Novák.
Novák spent her entire political career in Fidesz, but as a young woman she was officially meant to show a more European, more Western-facing face of the party than the mainstream led by Viktor Orbán. She had to step down after the pardon for sex abuse scandal. At that point Tamás Sulyok was elected, a figure little known to the public and without a strong public profile, and he too did not complete his first term.
President Tamás Sulyok was ultimately removed by means of a short sentence inserted into the 17th constitutional amendment, which the lawyer elected by Fidesz signed, thereby ending his mandate.
Tisza has indicated that it will adopt a new constitution within this parliamentary term and will at least consider the possibility of electing the president of the republic directly.
Tisza’s first political misstep
Prime Minister Péter Magyar promised public consultation on the choice of president, then, after a very short time, announced that the parliamentary group was nominating women’s world chess champion Judit Polgár. The announcement was followed by a strong outcry; critics of the decision argued that the absence of consultation cast a shadow over the selection process. Sensing the outrage, Polgár declined Magyar’s offer. After the failed nomination, Medián, one of Hungary’s most trusted pollsters, measured the first significant drop (3–5 percentage points) in support for Tisza, which nevertheless remained at a historically high level, at 68% among decided party voters.
Tisza chose Baka from three candidates; the other two were historian Ignác Romsics and independent lawyer Botond Fülöp, who publishes under the pseudonym Vidéki Prókátor and was the one who brought to light the pardon case that led to President Katalin Novák’s resignation.