Judge removed by Orbán elected Hungarian president in historic shift

In a Budapest parliament chamber still haunted by fifteen years of democratic erosion, András Baka — the judge Viktor Orbán once removed for resisting him — was elected Hungary's president by an overwhelming margin in August 2026. His return is not merely a personal vindication but a signal that nations, like individuals, sometimes find their way back to the principles they abandoned. Baka, a man shaped by courts rather than campaigns, now stands at the threshold between dismantling one era and honestly constructing the next — a position that will test whether Hungary's new rulers have truly b