Hungary: highly criticized appointment of a close to power at the head of the Supreme Court

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, June 12, 2020. REUTERS / Bernadett Szabo

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Unsurprisingly, MPs from Prime Minister Viktor Orban's party, which has two-thirds of the seats in parliament, endorsed the appointment of a new president of the Supreme Court.

A decision rejected by the magistrates. 

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With our correspondent in Budapest,

At 52, Zsolt Andras Varga is the new president of the Kuria, Hungary's highest court.

This law professor and former member of the Constitutional Council has no experience as a judge.

Experience hitherto essential and required by law to exercise this function.

But this criterion of competence is no longer required because the law has recently been modified for this candidate for power.

Zsolt Andras Varga indeed served the government for several years.

He was the deputy attorney general, himself a loyalist to Viktor Orban.

For the National Council of the Judiciary, this election is contrary to the principle of judicial independence.

Until now, the Supreme Court had retained a certain independence, despite an attempt to regain control by power and the ousting of a former president in 2012. The Kuria had recently ruled in favor of about sixty young Roma, who had received

.

A judgment that irritated Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In 2018, the European Parliament had also launched proceedings against Hungary, accused of a serious violation of the values ​​of the European Union.

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• Hungary

• Justice

• Viktor Orban

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