Hungary: Hungarian parliament elects Andras Baka as President of the Republic
The people's representation in Budapest is entrusting a seasoned lawyer with the highest state office. What Hungarians expect from him after the Orbán years.
Budapest. The Hungarian parliament has elected former Supreme Court President Andras Baka as the new head of state. In the secret ballot, 140 MPs voted for the critic of the ousted long-standing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, 6 against him, as the acting President of Parliament Aniko Haller-Nagy announced. There were no abstentions and no other candidates.
The announcement of the result was broadcast live on social media. The non-partisan Baka (73) was proposed by the faction of Prime Minister Peter Magyar's civil Tisza party. Since the parliamentary election on April 12, Tisza has a two-thirds majority in the national representation. With this, they had passed a constitutional amendment that removed the previous head of state, Tamas Sulyok, from office.
Sulyok was appointed by Magyar's right-wing predecessor Orban, and his term would have ended in 2029 under regular circumstances. In Magyar's and the Tisza party's eyes, however, he had behaved like an "Orbán puppet". Orban's Fidesz party did not participate in Baka's election in protest against Sulyok's dismissal.
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
