László Sólyom | |
|---|---|
 Sólyom in 2009 | |
| President of Hungary | |
| In office 5 August 2005 – 5 August 2010 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Ferenc Mádl |
| Succeeded by | Pál Schmitt |
| President of the Constitutional Court | |
| In office 1 August 1990 – 24 November 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | János Németh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1942-01-03)3 January 1942 |
| Died | 8 October 2023(2023-10-08) (aged 81) Budapest, Hungary |
| Political party | Independent (from 1989) |
| Other political affiliations | Hungarian Democratic Forum (1987–1989) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Pécs (JD) |
László Sólyom (Hungarian:Sólyom László,pronounced[ˈʃoːjomˈlaːsloː]; 3 January 1942 – 8 October 2023) was a Hungarian politician, lawyer, and librarian who wasPresident of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was the first president of theConstitutional Court of Hungary from 1990 to 1998.
A prominent jurist and pro-democracy activist, Sólyom became the first president of the Constitutional Court at a time when the country was in the final years of itsdemocratic transition afterdecades of communist rule. During his mandate, the Court declared thedeath penalty unconstitutional, strengthened the protection of freedom of expression and conscience, and legitimated the domestic partnerships of homosexuals.
Later,in 2005, he was elected president of Hungary, a largely ceremonial position, as an independent candidate. He held this office until 2010.
László Sólyom was born on 3 January 1942 inPécs,Kingdom of Hungary, the son of lawyer Ferenc Sólyom and Aranka Lelkes.[1][2] On 24 October 1956, Sólyom joined an anti-communist demonstration with his fellow students of the Széchenyi István High School.[3]
He began his studies in law and political science at theUniversity of Pécs in 1960, graduating in 1965.[3][1] Sólyom also trained to become a librarian at theNational Széchényi Library between 1963 and 1965.[2][3] In 1966,Ferenc Mádl, who was then the Secretary of the Legal Department of theHungarian Academy of Sciences, offered him an assistant professorship at theUniversity of Jena's Institute of Civil Law, earning his doctorate in German Civil Law in 1969.[3][1][2][4] In 1977 he published the first of his essays on law, whose main object of study was the protection of people and the environment.[5] Sólyolm earned a doctorate in Political and Legal Sciences in 1981.[5]
Back in Hungary, Sólyolm started working as a researcher and began teaching in 1983 at the Civil Law Department of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of theEötvös Loránd University.[3] In 1984, he completed another academic internship at theMax Planck Institute for Foreign and International Private Law and in 1988 he did research at the University of Frankfurt.[5] Years later, in 1993, Sólyolm began teaching at thePázmány Péter Catholic University and, since 2002, at theAndrássy University Budapest.[3]
Already in the mid-1980s, he worked as a legal advisor for various civic and environmental movements,[5] joining the environmental organizationDuna Kör in 1984 and participating in their protests, such as those against the construction of theGabčíkovo-Nagymaros Dams.[3][2] In the 1980s, Sólyolm participated in civic organizations that contributed to the democratic transition in the country.[1] In 1988 and 1989 Sólyom was the secretary of the Publicity Club, and he became a member of the board of the Independent Lawyers' Forum in 1989.[3] He also participated in themeeting in Lakitelek [hu] on 27 September 1987 with other intellectuals opposed to theJános Kádár regime and was one of the founding members of the then-illegalHungarian Democratic Forum in 1989.[6][3][2][5] Sólyolm became member of the Hungarian Democratic Forum's executive and was in charge of the constitutional reform proposals. He was also a member of the Opposition Round Table Talks, which was a set of meetings to design the legal and political basis for post-communist Hungary.[2][6]
Throughout his legal career, Sólyom acquired a reputation for his academic accomplishments and for his doctrinal development of privacy rights.[6][1] This led to his appointment as a judge of the newly establishedConstitutional Court of Hungary by theNational Assembly on 24 November 1989, becoming its first president in 1990. Sólyom abandoned his political affiliations but not his work as a university professor.[3][2][6][5] This new court was entrusted with the task of overseeing the constitutional revisions that had been introduced the previous month.[5]
In this role, he significantly contributed to the abolition ofcapital punishment, the protection of information and environmental rights, thefreedom of opinion and ofconscience, as well as the constitutional protection ofdomestic partnerships ofhomosexuals, the Justice Act, the status of the President of the Republic, the constitutional content of the referendum, legislation on abortion and the law on compensation, which measures brought wide international acclaim for the Constitutional Court of Hungary.[3][5][6][7][4] The Court, with this activity, helped lead to the democratic transition in Hungary and the establishment of a parliamentary democracy.[7]
Sólyom had a controversial principle of "activism" based on the "invisible constitution", shaping the decisions of the court by the "spirit" or "morals" of the Constitution rather than its explicitly written terms, advocating the principle of equality and human dignity even over the language of the constitution.[5] In his concurring opinion in the judgement on the unconstitutionality of capital punishment he writes: "In this context, the starting point is the Constitution as a whole. The Constitutional Court must continue its effort to explain the theoretical bases of the Constitution and the rights included in it and to form a coherent system with its decisions which as an "invisible Constitution" provides for a reliable standard of constitutionality beyond the Constitution, which nowadays is often amended out of current political interests."[8][5] He also called for the possibility of the Constitutional Court to modify laws that can be declared unconstitutional so as not to annul them completely.[5]
Sólyolm's term of office ended on 24 November 1998 and was succeeded byJános Németh.[5] He continued his scholarly career, continued giving lectures in universities, and became founder of Védegylet, an environmentalist and civil rightsnon-governmental organisation in 2000.[5][1] Sólyom became member of theInternational Commission of Jurists and theNational Science Research Fund Programmes [hu].[5] In 2002,Prime MinisterPéter Medgyessy appointed Sólyolm as head of the advisory committee of the bill to make public the collaboration of officials of the current government and administration with the secret police of the late communist regime.[5]
In view of the2005 Hungarian presidential election, in February 2005, 110 personalities sent, as representatives of the Védegylet organization, intellectuals and artists, an open letter to the members of the National Assembly, to elect Sólyom as the next president of the Republic, as they saw in him a "non-partisan person who looks beyond the political considerations of the moment".[9]
In the third round of the elections, on 7 June 2005, Solyom was elected by the National Assembly as the newPresident of Hungary, receiving 185 votes, three votes more than theHungarian Socialist Party candidateKatalin Szili, although there were reports of voting irregularities.[10] He was subsequently sworn into office.[10]
László Sólyom was inaugurated in his office at a ceremony in the Mirror Hall ofSándor Palace on 4 August, effectively beginning his term of office on 5 August.[11]
In March 2006 he refused toshake hands with János Fekete, former vice president of the Hungarian National Bank before theend of Communism in Hungary.[12] The incident happened while presenting an award to Fekete that theGyurcsány cabinet forced through,[13] despite strong objections to that nomination due to Fekete's past as a hardline communist.[14]
On 26 June 2006, while thePresident of the United StatesGeorge W. Bush was visiting Hungary to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the1956 Hungarian uprising, Sólyom told him that "this fight against terrorism can be successful only if every step and measure taken are in line with international law", a comment that many media interpreted as a subtle criticism of theIraq War.[15]
Following the outbreak ofanti-government protests in September 2006 that soon became violent, Sólyom called unsuccessfully on Prime MinisterFerenc Gyurcsány to resign, accusing him of lying to the people and provoking a "moral crisis" in the country after the latter admitted that he had repeatedly lied about the country's economic situation.[16][6] In 2006, a published poll showed that Sólyom was the most trusted politician in the country.[6]
In 2007, he refused to award a similar distinction toGyula Horn. He referred to the fact that Horn had not changed his views on the1956 revolution in which he had taken part on the Soviet side, fighting against the Hungarian revolutionaries. Sólyom said that this (i.e., Horn's opinion) conflicts with the constitutional values of the Republic of Hungary, and that he could not give the award to Horn, despite his merits.[17]
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In 2009, Sólyomwas refused entry to Slovakia to attend the dedication of a statue ofKing Saint Stephen in the border town ofKomárno on 21 August,[18] an incident reported in Hungary as tantamount to a declaration ofpersona non grata[19] which further worsened already tenseHungary–Slovakia relations. Sólyom said that "this is a situation unheard of, inexcusable and unexplainable in the relationship of two allied countries."[20] Slovakia's government, containing the ultranationalistSNS party, claimed that the Hungarian President's presence is a "threat to national security".[21] Sólyom came back to visit the same statue a year later in August 2010, after Slovak voters ousted the previous government; the ceremony at the statue took place without incident.[22][23] TheCourt of Justice of the European Union ruled in October 2012 that the prohibition on his entry into Slovakia in 2009 did not compromise hisfreedom of movement as an EU citizen because his role as a Head of State justified a limit, based on international law, to his right to freedom of movement.[24]
On 5 August 2010, Sólyom was succeeded as president byPál Schmitt.[4]
During the processing of the2011 constitution of Hungary, Sólyom stated that "the drafting process had lost its dignity by descending to the level of common parliamentary squabbles".[6]
After his mandate, he established scholarships to help young Hungarian researchers to study in other countries.[6] He was very critical of theViktor Orbán government.[6] Sólyom published his three-volume professional memoir and summaryDocumenta in 2019.[25]
In 1966, he married a school teacher named Erzsébet (née Nagy; 1944–2015), a fellow student at the Pécs Conservatory.[26] They had two children: Beáta Sólyom and Benedek Sólyom, as well as eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.[6] His wife kept a low profile during Sólyom's presidency and participated in events for disabled children, large families and the elderly, staying away from protocol events.[26] She died in February 2015 at the age of 73 after a long illness, for which reason he gradually abandoned his public life.[26][6]
He was Catholic.[6] After his retirement, Sólyom translated many theologian works into Hungarian.[27] After his wife's death, Sólyom walkedCamino de Santiago on foot. He also passed a pilot's licence in his old age. Sólyom frequently volunteered at the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta.[28]
Sólyom died of cancer on 8 October 2023, at age 81, inBudapest.[4][6] The religious funeral took place on 18 October at theFiume Road Graveyard.[29] His funeral was attended by numerous politicians and public figures, including incumbent head of stateKatalin Novák, former presidents Pál Schmitt andJános Áder, house speakerLászló Kövér, cardinalPéter Erdő and apostolic nuncioMichael Banach, in addition to various members of the Hungarian government and opposition parties.[30]
Hungary: Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (1999)[31]
Germany: Grand Cross with Star and Sash of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1998)[31]
Estonia: Grand Cross of theOrder of the Cross of Terra Mariana (27 March 2006)[32]
Latvia: Grand Cross of theOrder of the Three Stars (31 August 2006)[33]
Lithuania: Grand Cross with Chain of theOrder of Vytautas the Great (31 August 2006)[34]
Finland: Grand Cross with Collar of theOrder of the White Rose of Finland (2006)[35]
Spain: Knight of the Collar of theOrder of Isabella the Catholic (25 May 2007)[36]
Malta: Grand Cross with Chain of theNational Order of Merit (31 May 2007)[37]
Algeria: Collar of theNational Order of Merit (2 June 2007)[38]
Kazakhstan: First Class of theOrder of Friendship (23 November 2007)[39]
Ukraine: Grand Cross with Chain of theOrder of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (7 July 2008)[40]
Peru: Grand Cross with Diamonds of theOrder of the Sun of Peru (24 September 2008)[41]| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New office | President of theConstitutional Court 1990–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of Hungary 2005–2010 | Succeeded by |
