Hungary’s parliament elected Constitutional Court chief Tamás Sulyok as the country's next president on Monday, two weeks following the unexpected resignation of Katalin Novák.
Novák, a close ally of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, resigned from the largely ceremonial role as president after she came under mounting pressure to pardon a man convicted of helping cover up sexual abuse in a children's home.
Sulyok’s swift election could help Orbán regain the political initiative after a scandal that appeared to clash with one of his party’s key tenets: its commitment to traditional family and Christian values.
Parliament elected Sulyok for five years with the backing of lawmakers from Orbán’s right-wing, conservative ruling party, which has a commanding majority.
Sulyok received the votes of 134 out of 198 MPs of the National Assembly (the parliament usually numbers 199 MPs, but Judit Varga, formerly a Justice Minister in Orbán’s government, resigned her mandate and ministerial post).
There were no abstentions and only five votes against, as the bulk of opposition MPs boycotted the vote, the announcement of the results, and the President-Elect’s acceptance speech.
In a brief speech after his election, Sulyok promised transparency in his decisions about presidential pardons and awards.
Sulyok was the only candidate in the contest put forward by the Fidesz-KDNP (Christian Democratic People's Party, Fidesz’s junior partner) coalition, as no other candidate managed to obtain the support of the one-fifth of the MPs required to run in the contest.
The opposition has also demanded the election of the President be conducted by a general vote.
Sulyok has been the president of Hungary's top court since 2016, a mandate he also received with the backing of lawmakers from the Fidesz.
He is expected to take up the role on March 5, becoming the seventh President of Hungary following the collapse of the communist rule in the country.
Tailor-made to presidency
Tamás Sulyok is tailor-made to be the President of Hungary in so far as the current needs of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party is concerned, Ilona Gizińska, an analyst with the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“The new president has not been politically involved so far, but he is affiliated with Fidesz,” the analyst says. All indications are that he will be more conservative and work more in the background than incumbent President Katalin Novák, she adds, stressing that the president-elect was elected head of the Constitutional Court in 2016 with Fidesz votes.
“The fresh image that Sulyok brings with him is now something much needed by Fidesz,” assesses the analyst. “His candidacy came as a complete surprise to the Hungarian public.”
The president-elect’s name did not appear on the broad list of potential candidates after Novák stepped down. As Gizińska emphasizes, Sulyok has not been a media figure so far, although that does not mean he was anonymous to the public.
According to her, the choice of someone from the world of the judiciary is also not a coincidence after Novák made a serious mistake in this area that cost her her position.
According to Gizińska, Warsaw is unlikely to be the first foreign capital the new president will visit, as was the case with Katalin Novák.
An elected official’s first visit is considered an important indication of the country’s foreign policy orientation. But the relationship between Warsaw and Budapest soured after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even in spite of the fact that both countries were ruled by conservatives. This was due to the Orbán government’s policies widely seen as pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian.
Poland’s new government coalition under PM Donald Tusk is similarly supportive of Kyiv as the previous government, but much more liberal and less eurosceptic than its predecessors, meaning it is much less likely to support Budapest in its frequent spats with Brussels.
Sulyok’s swift election could help Orbán regain the political initiative after a scandal that appeared to clash with one of his party’s key tenets: its commitment to traditional family and Christian values.
Parliament elected Sulyok for five years with the backing of lawmakers from Orbán’s right-wing, conservative ruling party, which has a commanding majority.
Sulyok received the votes of 134 out of 198 MPs of the National Assembly (the parliament usually numbers 199 MPs, but Judit Varga, formerly a Justice Minister in Orbán’s government, resigned her mandate and ministerial post).
There were no abstentions and only five votes against, as the bulk of opposition MPs boycotted the vote, the announcement of the results, and the President-Elect’s acceptance speech.
In a brief speech after his election, Sulyok promised transparency in his decisions about presidential pardons and awards.
Sulyok was the only candidate in the contest put forward by the Fidesz-KDNP (Christian Democratic People's Party, Fidesz’s junior partner) coalition, as no other candidate managed to obtain the support of the one-fifth of the MPs required to run in the contest.
The opposition has also demanded the election of the President be conducted by a general vote.
Sulyok has been the president of Hungary's top court since 2016, a mandate he also received with the backing of lawmakers from the Fidesz.
He is expected to take up the role on March 5, becoming the seventh President of Hungary following the collapse of the communist rule in the country.
Tailor-made to presidency
Tamás Sulyok is tailor-made to be the President of Hungary in so far as the current needs of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party is concerned, Ilona Gizińska, an analyst with the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“The new president has not been politically involved so far, but he is affiliated with Fidesz,” the analyst says. All indications are that he will be more conservative and work more in the background than incumbent President Katalin Novák, she adds, stressing that the president-elect was elected head of the Constitutional Court in 2016 with Fidesz votes.
“The fresh image that Sulyok brings with him is now something much needed by Fidesz,” assesses the analyst. “His candidacy came as a complete surprise to the Hungarian public.”
The president-elect’s name did not appear on the broad list of potential candidates after Novák stepped down. As Gizińska emphasizes, Sulyok has not been a media figure so far, although that does not mean he was anonymous to the public.
According to her, the choice of someone from the world of the judiciary is also not a coincidence after Novák made a serious mistake in this area that cost her her position.
According to Gizińska, Warsaw is unlikely to be the first foreign capital the new president will visit, as was the case with Katalin Novák.
An elected official’s first visit is considered an important indication of the country’s foreign policy orientation. But the relationship between Warsaw and Budapest soured after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even in spite of the fact that both countries were ruled by conservatives. This was due to the Orbán government’s policies widely seen as pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian.
Poland’s new government coalition under PM Donald Tusk is similarly supportive of Kyiv as the previous government, but much more liberal and less eurosceptic than its predecessors, meaning it is much less likely to support Budapest in its frequent spats with Brussels.
Source: Reuters, PAP, TVP World
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