Hungary ruling party nominates former Supreme Court head Baka for president

Hungary's ruling Tisza party chose former Supreme Court chief Andras Baka as its presidential candidate, setting up a parliamentary vote next Tuesday. The office is largely ceremonial beside the prime minister’s, but the president still represents the country, signs legislation and can shape public debate when politics turns tense.

Baka brings a rare judicial pedigree to the race. He served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1991 to 2008, and Hungary’s parliament elected him president of the Supreme Court in 2009. He was 73 when the nomination was announced.

The choice carries political weight because Baka is already a symbol of Hungary’s fight over judicial independence. The previous Hungarian government removed him from the Supreme Court in 2011, a move that was denounced at the time as an assault on democratic freedoms. The European Court of Human Rights later found that Hungary had unlawfully removed him from his judicial post.

That history makes Baka a pointed pick in a country where Viktor Orban and Fidesz spent years centralizing power through state institutions, drawing criticism for weakening checks and balances and pressuring courts, media and civil society. A former top judge in the presidency can project legal credibility and continuity, but it also puts a figure associated with court independence at the center of a system still shaped by those fights.

Tisza's parliamentary faction selected Baka in a secret ballot from a three-person shortlist, underlining how tightly controlled the nomination was. If parliament backs him, the presidency will again become a measure of who controls Hungary's key institutions, even in a post that is designed to be above day-to-day party politics.