Dr. András Baka Takes Office as President of the Republic

This Wednesday, Dr. András Baka took office as the new Hungarian head of state elected by Parliament eight days ago.

Dr. András Baka was born in 1952 in Budapest. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 1978 and conducted research in constitutional law at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences until 1989. From 1991 to 2008, he served as the first Hungarian judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. From 2008 to 2009, he served as presiding judge of the Budapest Court of Appeals; from 2009 to 2011, until his early removal from office, he was President of the Supreme Court, and later served as a senior judge of the Kúria.

On August 11, 2026, following the seventeenth amendment to the Fundamental Law, the National Assembly elected András Baka as the President of Hungary to fill the office of President of the Republic that had become vacant. In accordance with Article 11(6) of the Fundamental Law, in the event of the premature termination of the previous President’s term of office, the President takes office eight days after being elected; accordingly, András Baka will fully exercise his duties and powers as head of state beginning August 19, 2026.

The head of state discussed the handover of the office at the Sándor Palace with Ágnes Forsthoffer, the Speaker of Parliament who assumed the duties and responsibilities of the president in the interim period after the term of former president Tamas Sulyok ended, to specify the details of the handover of presidential duties and competencies. The new President then met with the staff of the office.