A Head of State Wanted: Hungary’s New Regime Scrambles for a President

There is a distinct irony in sweeping to power on the promise of national renewal, only to misplace the head of state. Next Tuesday, the Hungarian parliament is scheduled to vote on a new president. The only missing ingredient is a nominee. Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party decisively ended Viktor Orbán’s sixteen-year tenure in April’s general election, is currently scrambling to find a suitable figurehead for a deeply polarised nation. The urgency is entirely self-inflicted. In July, the new government utilised a constitutional amendment to unceremoniously eject the sitting president, Tamás Sulyok. Magyar justified the manoeuvre by dismissing Sulyok as a mere proxy of the previous administration.

Having created the vacancy, filling it has proven surprisingly difficult. The prime minister initially approached Judit Polgár, the celebrated chess grandmaster, presumably hoping her international standing would transcend domestic squabbles. Polgár politely declined the offer, pointing to the very political fractures the new administration claims it wants to heal. This high-profile rejection exposed Magyar to immediate criticism from civil society and opposition ranks, who accuse the prime minister of abandoning his initial promises of transparency.

Magyar had previously assured the public that the selection process would avoid the traditional secrecy of backroom deals. Let's decide together, he declared in a social media broadcast late last month, inviting proposals from civil society. Yet, facing mounting pressure, the prime minister recently clarified that his party merely sought recommendations rather than initiating a formal societal consultation. The final decision, he noted, remains firmly with the Tisza parliamentary group and the National Assembly. Meanwhile, Magyar has been conducting meetings with various prominent figures. The shortlist of potential nominees reportedly includes historian Ignác Romsics, former Curia president András Baka, and Botond Fülöp, the lawyer who exposed the secret presidential pardon that forced Katalin Novák to resign in early 2024.

The presidency in Hungary is largely a ceremonial function, though it retains the power to sign legislation, refer bills to the Constitutional Court, and issue pardons. Currently, parliamentary speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer is keeping the presidential seat warm on an interim basis. Magyar insists the next occupant must be a paragon of national unity, entirely free from party-political baggage. Achieving such consensus in a country accustomed to sharp political maneuvering seems highly ambitious. Fidesz, now relegated to the opposition benches, has already announced a boycott of the upcoming vote. The former ruling party maintains that the constitutional mechanism used to remove Sulyok was entirely illegitimate. As Tuesday approaches, Hungary’s new leadership must quickly produce a candidate capable of uniting a stubbornly divided electorate.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com