Hungary's Ruling Party Picks Andras Baka for President

Hungary's ruling Tisza Party has nominated Andras Baka, a former president of the Supreme Court, as the country's new president, the party's parliamentary group confirmed on Facebook on Saturday.

Baka is expected to be elected to the largely ceremonial post on Tuesday, a symbolic move in Prime Minister Peter Magyar's effort to remove former Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nominees from office.

On 13 July, the Hungarian parliament approved the landmark 17th amendment to the country's Fundamental Law, which removed President Tamas Sulyok from office. He later signed the amendment.

Baka, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, was removed from his position as president of the Supreme Court in 2012 by Orban's government at the time. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2014, and its Grand Chamber upheld the decision in 2016, that Hungary had dismissed him in retaliation for his criticism of the government, violating his rights to a fair hearing and freedom of expression. Orban's government rejected these allegations.

(Reuters, Max)