Parliament elected a new president after former President Tamas Sulyok's mandate ended on July 20 following the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law.

Agnes Forsthoffer, the speaker of parliament, has been exercising the rights of president since then. Recently, chess master Judit Polgár said no to the Presidential role.

Baka will assume office on the eighth day following the announcement of the election result. Here are key details about him:

Baka was born on December 11, 1952 in Budapest, finished his secondary school in 1971, and continued his studies at the Faculty of Political Science and Law at ELTE in 1973, where he obtained a doctorate in law in 1978.

From 1978 to 1990, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Political Science and Law of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and from 1990 to 1998 he served as Director-General of the College of Public Administration.

From the 1980s onwards, he taught as a visiting professor at several universities in the United States and was invited on numerous occasions to give lectures in France and Germany, and so has international experience.

He has held the title of Candidate of Political Science and Law since 1988, the year in which he was awarded the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Academic Youth Prize for his outstanding academic achievements.

He is a researcher in the field of human rights and minority rights, and has published numerous works on these topics.

Baka served as an MP for the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) as an independent in 1990-1991, during the first parliamentary term following the change of regime.

During this time, he also served as secretary of the Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs, and as head of the MDF parliamentary group's human rights working group.

In 1991, he resigned from his parliamentary seat after being elected a judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), where he served as the Hungarian judge of the Strasbourg-based human rights court until 2008.

Between 2008 and 2009, he served as President of the Budapest Court of Appeal, and in June 2009, parliament elected him President of the Supreme Court for a six-year term.

Along with this post, he also held the office of President of the National Council of the Judiciary (OIT), which is responsible for the central administration of the courts.

On December 31, 2011, his term came to an end pursuant to the transitional provisions of the Fundamental Law, which came into force on January 1, 2012.

The Supreme Court was succeeded by the Kuria, and the roles of head of the Kuria and head of the judicial administrative body were separated.

Baka, who criticised the judicial reform in Hungary, was barred from standing for election as President of the Kuria by the new legislation, which stipulated that candidates for the post must have five years' judicial experience in Hungary.

Legislation with constitutional force did not allow the former chief justice to seek redress before the courts, so he turned to the ECHR.

In its final judgments - both at first instance in May 2014 and on appeal in June 2016 - the court ruled against Hungary, stating that the Hungarian authorities had violated Baka's right to freedom of expression.

According to the judgment, the former chief justice also suffered a human rights violation as a result of the manner in which he was prematurely removed from office through the enactment of legislation.

Following his removal, Baka served as a presiding judge at the Kuria.

Baka: Hungary's deep polarisation 'gravest consequence of past years'

In his address to parliament on Tuesday following his election as President of the Republic, Baka said the deep division within Hungarian society was the "gravest consequence of recent years".

He also said confronting the past was inevitable at the dawn of a new era and emphasised the importance of shared contemplation on the concept of state.

Baka stated in his inaugural speech that he had accepted the nomination "because I think that Hungary has arrived at a point in its history when it needs to seriously contemplate the operation of the state, constitutionality and the country as community."

As the sole candidate for the post, Baka added that the National Assembly's decision to elect him was "a great honour, recognition and exceptional trust. The candidacy itself was also unexpected, overwhelming and an honour," he said.

He thanked those who recommended him and voted for him, "for finding me fit for the post based on my work and my talks, among the many worthy candidates".

He noted, at the same time, that while the majority of Hungarian society felt liberation and hope, "others are disappointed and uncertain."

Hungarians cannot avoid confronting the past at the beginning of a new era, he said, emphasising the need to understand "how the nation reached this point".

The president-elect said Hungary had "wasted a generation's worth of time, slipping from a model student during the time of the democratic transition to the ranks of lagging nations".

Over the past two decades, Hungary fell into a severe crisis affecting the rule of law, society, the economy, public finances, energy supply, water management, environmental protection, and transport, he said, adding that the tragic state of the health-care system, education and child protection were also common knowledge.

"Almost every area directly shaping daily life was in crisis," he said. "During the past period, a significant portion of public assets were placed at the service of private interests, with the public procurement system, the restructuring of state property, the concentration of land ownership, and the lack of transparency in the use of public funds raising questions that a democratic state must answer decisively."

Democracy functions not only because it had rules but because people believe those rules applied to everyone without exception, he said. He declared that the deep division within Hungarian society was the "gravest consequence of recent years".

Baka emphasised that the previous period had pitted social groups against each another, fostering the belief that those with differing views were not merely mistaken but enemies.

"Hungary cannot not build a shared future if its citizens view each another as adversaries."

He stressed the dual responsibility of upholding justice and exercising restraint. While legal violations must be exposed and the use of public funds scrutinised, he said, "we cannot build a new Hungary on vengeance."

Baka added that those who were disappointed by the political developments and had not voted for change need not abandon their beliefs or political convictions to secure their place in Hungary’s future.

"Political change must not mean that others now have to live in fear, remain silent, or feel like outsiders in their own country," he said.

He noted, however, that responsibility for Hungary’s current state lay differently with those who had exercised power, those who had served it, and those who had remained silent. Yet the lessons to be drawn applied to everyone, not just those who had held power.

"It is easy to claim that others had done this to Hungary, but a democracy is not only undermined when someone oversteps their authority but also when a society becomes accustomed to this happening."

Baka also said that the past period warranted self-reflection but also offered grounds for optimism, as "something extraordinary" had occurred in Hungary.

The demand for freedom, once expressed sporadically and independently by thinkers, journalists, lawyers, civil organisations, artists and many others, had now found resonance across the broadest layers of society.

What had previously been the criticism, protest, or courage of individuals had become a widespread societal will.

The recent change had shown that a society could reclaim its self-determination, he said. The question for the coming years would be what Hungary chose to do with this opportunity.

He warned that it would be a serious mistake to believe a single electoral result could by itself restore the rule of law. While a proper constitution, free elections, independent courts, effective constitutional justice, a free press, and accountable governance were all essential, he insisted that a democratic and functioning constitutional culture was equally necessary.

This required a culture in which the limitation of power was not seen as an obstacle, political opponents were not treated as enemies, criticism was not labelled as treachery, and compromise was not viewed as weakness.

Baka said that expressing the unity of the nation first and foremost meant political neutrality, but it must never mean neutrality on values.

He said that a modern, democratic society was inherently diverse, with coexisting worldviews, political convictions, lifestyles and interests. "There may even be deep, sometimes irreconcilable divisions," he added.

As president, Baka said, he must represent this diverse community and always acknowledge the legitimacy of differing views, as well as the right of both majority and minority positions to be heard.

The president's role, he said, was not to manufacture consensus where none exists, but to represent the idea that "citizens with differing views are equal members of the same nation."

"For me, national unity does not mean uniformity of thought, but that, regardless of political or ideological differences, we all share equal dignity and rights within the same nation," Baka said.

He said it was crucial that the president uphold the established constitutional order, the values of the European Union and the historical foundations of the nation.

Baka said that before 2026, the Hungarian state had failed to meet one of the most fundamental requirements of a democratic rule-of-law system: the genuine separation of powers and a functioning system of checks and balances.

He said Hungary had developed a system in which a single party had captured the state and its institutions, culminating in years of governance by decree that largely bypassed parliament.

"It is the responsibility of us all to ensure such a system never emerges again in Hungary," he said.

The president, he said, could contribute to this by consistently, transparently and independently exercising their constitutional powers, not rubber-stamping laws, acting as an extension of the parliamentary majority or government, or remaining silent when fundamental constitutional principles are at stake.

True constitutional safeguards, he argued, required a system that clearly defines the limits of state power, which secures fundamental rights and institutional balances "no single political majority can reshape for its own interests".

Concerning Hungary's constitutional overhaul, Baka stressed that a constitution's stability rested on its being regarded as belonging to the broadest sections of society.

He warned that once again drafting a constitution "solely as the document of a temporary majority" would result in repeating the mistake the consequences of which Hungary was now attempting to rectify.

Drafting a constitution required more than mere parliamentary legislation, he said. "A wide-ranging societal and expert debate, genuine political consensus, and a process that in itself reflects the democratic culture the new constitution will later be tasked with upholding" was also necessary, he said.

He said a constitution was not merely the state's operating manual, but it established the limits of power and, in doing so, secured freedom.

While the president is not a constitutional authority and does not determine the content of a new constitution, he said, the role of the head of state was to encourage societal and expert debate, represent its openness and impartiality, and consistently ensure that constitutional reform does not become the domain of a single political force.

Reflecting on his judicial career, Baka said the value of institutional independence became most visible when tested.

He said that in Strasbourg and later as head of the Supreme Court, he had observed that a democratic institution's authority lay not in conflict-free operation, but in its ability to remain true to its function even in situations of conflict. This, he added, was a principle he intended to follow as president.

He also touched on Hungary's foreign representation, emphasising the national interest of restoring relations with allies.

Baka said that as president, he felt a responsibility for Hungarians abroad, with the protection of their cultural, language and communal rights being a lasting interest of the Hungarian state.

In closing, Baka noted that Hungary had often been forced to start anew throughout its history. "Hungarian history is not only a story of losses and failures but also one of survival, as generations repeatedly rebuilt institutions, communities, and the country itself after severe historical ruptures and defeats," he said.

Hungary now faced such a task again, he said, stressing that the country had been given an opportunity "to learn from what we did well, and from what we got wrong, from what others did to us, and from what we allowed to happen."

At stake is "whether Hungary can become a country where a child’s future is not determined by their place of birth, where the work of a teacher or a nurse is valued, where an entrepreneur seeks opportunity rather than connections, where a young person does not have to leave for abroad because they see no future at home, and where the elderly do not feel redundant," he said.

"The state does not exist for itself," he concluded. "The state exists for the people."


MTI Stock Photo

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881.

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