Hungary’s seventh president elected – UPDATE

The National Assembly elected Tamás Sulyok as President of the Republic on Monday. The President of the Constitutional Court, who was the only candidate for the post, received 134 votes in favour in the secret ballot.

The opposition (DK, Momentum, Socialists, Jobbik, Párbeszéd) withdrew at the start of the presidential election, with a total of 146 MPs casting their votes. Of these, 7 were invalid votes, while there were also 5 no votes.

Before they voted on the new president, Hungarian lawmakers on Monday accepted the resignation of President Katalin Novák with 196 votes in favour, none against and no abstentions. Novák offered her resignation on Feb 10 after a scandal blew up in connection with a pardon she granted to the deputy director of an orphanage convicted of covering up child abuse.

• Today was also an important day for NATO: Hungarian Parliament votes in favour, Sweden to join NATO – UPDATE

Tamás Sulyok will take office on 5 March, becoming the seventh President of the Republic since the change of regime. Read also: Who is Tamás Sulyok, Fidesz’ nominee for head of state?

Hungarian governing parties nominate MEP László Trócsányi to replace Sulyok as head of the Supreme Court, details HERE.

After the announcement of the outcome of the vote, the president-elect took the presidential oath of office.

In a speech after his election, Sulyok said he wanted to build trust through mutual understanding free from prejudice. He said he believed in “the broadest possible transparency” when it came to bestowing awards or granting clemency.

Sulyok promised to work for a fair balance of constitutional fundamental rights and values.

He said the prerequisite for the existence of the state and the nation was mutual trust between individuals and groups of society, adding that he considered national constitutional identity and statehood based on popular sovereignty to be fundamentally important constitutional values.