Magyar’s party backs former supreme court head for Hungarian president

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s ruling Tisza party said on Saturday that it had nominated former Supreme Court President András Baka to become the country’s next president. Baka, who worked as a judge on the European Court of Human Rights before being elected to head the Supreme Court, was removed from his post by the Fidesz government in 2011 — a move the ECHR ruled was unlawful. “Throughout his career, Dr. András Baka has considered the principle of the separation of powers to be of paramount importance and has consistently stood up for the rule of law and judicial independence,” Tisza said in a Facebook post. He is “the strongest guarantee that the office of President of the Republic will regain its true dignity and its ability to unite the nation and serve as a counterbalance to the ruling majority,” it added. Parliament is set to vote on his candidacy next Tuesday. Tisza, which won a general election in the spring, enjoys a two-thirds majority in the chamber, making Baka’s election to the largely representative post a formality. The nomination comes after former President Tamás Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment that removed him from office last month, bowing to months of public pressure from Magyar. The new prime minister had called for Sulyok’s resignation following Tisza’s landslide election victory that ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule. Magyar’s first choice for president, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, declined the nomination, saying the job would be too stressful.