András Baka’s Return Turns a Judicial Wound Into a Presidential Test
Hungary has elected the former Supreme Court chief as president years after his term was cut short. His challenge now is to make reconciliation more than a symbol of political reversal.
There is a striking symmetry in András Baka’s return to the Hungarian state, although the new president himself appears determined to resist the language of revenge. Parliament elected the 73-year-old former Supreme Court chief on Aug. 11 by 140 votes out of 146 ballots cast. He is scheduled to be sworn in on Aug. 19.
Baka’s story matters because public institutions carry memory. After many years as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, he was chosen in 2009 to lead Hungary’s Supreme Court. He later criticized judicial reforms introduced during Viktor Orbán’s government, warning about the independence of courts and the constitutional order.
His term was cut short when the Supreme Court was reorganized as the Kúria. The legal dispute did not disappear when he left office. In 2016, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights found violations of the Convention in Baka v. Hungary.
That judgment gave international legal form to a conflict that had already become a moral and political question inside Hungary: what happens when the rules governing an institution change around a leader who has challenged the government? The case became part of Europe’s larger debate over whether power can be both legally exercised and institutionally abusive.
The political majority has now changed. Péter Magyar’s Tisza party won two-thirds of Parliament in April, ending Orbán’s 16-year period as prime minister. The new majority has begun undoing parts of the system built during those years. President Tamás Sulyok left office after a constitutional process in July, opening the way for Baka’s nomination.
The temptation is to read the election as simple historical correction: a judge pushed out by one political era returns at the top of the state after that era ends. Yet this interpretation contains its own danger. If institutions become instruments for rewarding yesterday’s opponents and removing yesterday’s allies, Hungary merely reverses the direction of political power without changing its habits.
Baka’s first words recognized that problem. He spoke about a neutral presidency, healing social divisions and avoiding revenge. He also described Hungary’s European belonging in historical and cultural terms. For a man whose professional life has moved between Hungarian and European legal institutions, that message carries personal weight.
The presidency is largely ceremonial and does not run the government, but its moral authority can matter when a country is reconsidering the limits of political power. The president also has a role in the legislative process. That means Baka may soon face measures advanced by the same supermajority that elected him.
Fidesz boycotted the vote and says Tisza’s institutional changes amount to an abuse of constitutional power. Tisza says it is restoring safeguards weakened under Orbán. The deeper ethical test is whether the new majority can accept limits on itself. Baka’s inauguration on Aug. 19 will therefore be less an ending than an invitation to consistency: the value of his return will depend on whether the rules protecting institutions apply even when his political allies hold the votes.
