András Baka has been elected President of the Republic of Hungary, and in his first speech, he already criticized former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
On Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, the parliamentary majority of the Tisza Party, led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, elected the 73-year-old former president of the Supreme Court as the next head of state by secret ballot, with 140 votes in favor, six against, and no abstentions.
Fidesz, Viktor Orbán’s former ruling nationalist party, and its long-time ally the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) did not participate in the vote. In their view, the vote was possible only through the illegal removal of Tamás Sulyok, the previous president appointed under Orbán. His term was ended last month, July 2026, by a constitutional amendment passed by the Tisza majority after he refused to resign.
Shortly after the result was announced, Baka took the presidential oath in parliament. In his first address immediately after the election, he strongly criticized the Orbán governments for “wasting a generation’s time.” He claimed that Orbán had produced deep crises across the rule of law, society, the economy, public finances, energy, the environment, healthcare, education, and child protection.
He said he would reject revenge politics, stating: “We cannot build the new Hungary on revenge.”
However, he emphasized that accountability is necessary, while noting that the degree of responsibility differs among those who held power.
Baka defined the presidential role as expressing national unity through party-political neutrality, but not value neutrality. He would not sign laws as a mere formality, would not act as an “extended arm” of the parliamentary majority or the government, and would speak out when fundamental constitutional questions are at stake.
Baka will formally assume office on Aug. 19, 2026, with his term expected to last five years.
The election of András Baka already seemed very likely a few weeks earlier, when Péter Magyar posted a joint photo with him and Bálint Ruff on his Facebook profile. The Tisza parliamentary group finally nominated Baka by secret ballot from a shortlist of three.
The former chief justice’s candidacy was attacked from both the left and the right.
Pro-Tisza commentators again pointed out the complete lack of wider social consultation before his election. From the right-wing perspective, Baka’s previous judicial roles were criticized. First, the fact that he had served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for 17 years is deemed highly suspicious. While he was Supreme Court president, he also opposed the 2011 Nullity Act that annulled certain convictions of protesters arising from the 2006 protests and police actions, during which protesters were violently beaten by police while the left was in power.
András Baka was removed from office in 2011–2012 by the Fidesz government through the abolition and reorganization of the Supreme Court, which was replaced by the Kúria. The European Court of Human Rights later ruled that this premature removal violated his rights. The aggrieved former chief justice – who briefly served as an MP for the Hungarian Democratic Forum in 1990–1991 – now assumes the largely ceremonial office of President of the Republic following the similar early removal of Tamás Sulyok.
The post New president of Hungary elected, sharply criticizes Orbán in first speech appeared first on Remix News.
Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, faces an election dogfight. Behind in the polls, he has been effectively endorsed by both the Kremlin and the White House, and a host of conservative world leaders. As wars in Iran and Ukraine exacerbate the fissures that have weakened NATO, as well as the U.S.’s relationship with the European Union, this is an election that is being followed with bated breath in Washington, Moscow, Kyiv and Brussels.
Before the elections on April 12, a scandal engulfed the Hungarian government. On leaked recordings, foreign minister Péter Szijjártó can be heard deferentially acquiescing to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and passing on information from EU meetings. Szijjártó appeared willing to help the Kremlin’s cause in Brussels, to remove oligarchs and their relatives from the EU blacklist, and to block efforts to aid Ukraine. Hungary’s advocacy for the Kremlin’s agenda culminated in its recent veto of fresh sanctions on Russia and over $100 billion in loans to Ukraine. On X, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote that while “Hungary is and will be in the European Union, Victor Orbán and his foreign minister left Europe long ago.” And the Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin described Szijjárto’s calls with Lavrov as both “sinister” and “alarming.”
Szijjárto alleged that “foreign intelligence services, with the active involvement of Hungarian journalists, have been intercepting my phone calls.” It is a plot, the Hungarian government claims, to influence the upcoming polls. Orbán directly blames Ukraine for seeking to unseat his government. The opposition, led by Peter Magyar, has a healthy lead in the polls and describes the Hungarian government’s closeness to the Kremlin as “treason.” According to European intelligence reports, Moscow sent a three-person team to Hungary, overseen by Putin confidant Sergei Kiriyenko who ran an operation to interfere in the Moldovan election back in September. His tactics encompassed “vote-buying networks, troll farms, and on-the-ground influence campaigns.” A Kremlin-linked media consultancy, facing EU sanctions, was hired to dismiss Magyar as a Brussels stooge and portray Orbán as the only candidate strong enough to to be treated as an equal by world leaders, as evidenced by the strength of his relationship with Trump.
Despite a war with Iran that doesn’t appear to be going entirely to plan, the U.S. president took time out to back Orbán with enthusiasm and at considerable length on Truth Social. Trump said Orbán was “a true friend, fighter, and WINNER.” JD Vance, the vice president, is scheduled to visit Hungary on April 7, just five days before the election. And secretary of state Marco Rubio went to Hungary in February. It is now part of the U.S. National Security Strategy to work towards “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.” To that end, notes the U.S. government, “the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.” Orbán speaks MAGA’s language on immigration, traditional values and the Christian essence of Western societies. He is, like Putin and Trump, in MAGA’s view, an implacable opponent of secular, progressive, globalist politics as symbolised by Brussels.
Orbán, the longest serving current head of government in the EU, has become a figurehead for populist, nationalist movements across the world. The recent CPAC Hungary summit was attended by several of these leaders including France’s Marine Le Pen, Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders,who called Orbán “a lion on a continent led by sheep.” Latin American leaders close to Trump , including Javier Milei of Argentina and Jose Antonio Kast of Chile, also attended. Milei, who gave the longest speech at the summit, said Orbán was “a beacon for all… who refuse to accept that the West's destiny is one of managed decline.” This international network, with the United States and Russia included, has a vested ideological interest in seeing Orban continue to remain a thorn in the EU's side.
But what can Brussels do? The answer, it appears, is not much. The EU is consensus driven; it needs all its parts to act in concert, giving holdouts like Orbán considerable power to hold the whole bloc hostage. But given Orbán’s prominence as an ideologue, when Hungary blocks sanctions or delays support for Ukraine, it is more than a single nation going rogue. Alice Weidler, co-chair of the far-right AfD, the largest opposition party in the German Bundestag, was among those who spoke at the CPAC Hungary conference last month. Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, is an Orbán ally. On April 19, Bulgaria will have its eighth general election in just five years. Former president Rumen Radev’s new Progressive Party leads the polls and shares Orbán’s pro-Kremlin, anti-EU inclinations.
So polarized is the Hungarian election, that right wing groups are deploying their own observers from Argentina, Austria, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Tanzania and the United States to monitor proceedings. EU observers have said the Hungarian government controls the national media and a recent documentary alleges that a desperate government is resorting to vote-buying, gerrymandering and intimidation tactics. It’s hard to see how either Orbán or Magyar will accept the election result without protest, unless the margin is crushing. But, given Trump’s disdain for NATO allies and the EU, an Orbán election defeat would be a much-needed victory for European unity.
A version of this story was published in this week’s Coda Currents newsletter. Sign up here.
John Shattuck
Phineas Rueckert
Katia Patin
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