15.26 CESTFormer judge Baka elected new Hungarian president in another break from Orbán eraFormer ECtHR and Hungarian Supreme Court judge András Baka has been elected the new Hungarian president.146 votes were cast: 140 in favour, and six against.András Baka, the nominee of the governing Tisza Party for president and former Supreme Court president, attends the presidential election during an extraordinary plenary session of the Parliament in Budapest, Hungary. Photograph: Zoltán Balogh/EPA72-year-old Baka is another example of the new government’s clear break with the Orbán era: the lawyer was removed from the post of the president of the Supreme Court in 2011 by the then prime mnister, three years before his term was set to expire. He later won a case at the European Court of Human Rights against Hungary.In his acceptance speech, Baka said he believed Hungary “reached a period in its history when a serious reflection is needed about the functioning of the state,” after the last two decades of “a serious crisis” under the previous government and with deep societal divisions.He will replace Viktor Orbán loyalist Tamás Sulyok who stood down – or was effectively removed – from the post last month.ShareUpdated at 16.13 CEST
