László Sólyom

László Sólyom (3 January 1942 – 8 October 2023) was a Hungarian politician, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was the first president of the Constitutional 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 its democratic transition after decades of communist rule. During his mandate, the Court declared the death 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.

Early life László Sólyom was born on 3 January 1942 in Pécs, Kingdom of Hungary, the son of lawyer Ferenc Sólyom and Aranka Lelkes. On 24 October 1956, Sólyom joined an anti-communist demonstration with his fellow students of the Széchenyi István High School.

He began his studies in law and political science at the University of Pécs in 1960, graduating in 1965. In 1977 he published the first of his essays on law, whose main object of study was the protection of people and the environment. Sólyom earned a doctorate in Political and Legal Sciences in 1981.

In the third round of the elections, on 7 June 2005, Solyom was elected by the National Assembly as the new President of Hungary, receiving 185 votes, three votes more than the Hungarian Socialist Party candidate Katalin Szili, although there were reports of voting irregularities. He was subsequently sworn into office.

In March 2006 he refused to shake hands with János Fekete, former vice president of the Hungarian National Bank before the end of Communism in Hungary. The incident happened while presenting an award to Fekete that the Gyurcsány cabinet forced through, despite strong objections to that nomination due to Fekete's past as a hardline communist.

On 26 June 2006, while the President of the United States George W. Bush was visiting Hungary to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 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 the Iraq War.

Following the outbreak of anti-government protests in September 2006 that soon became violent, Sólyom called unsuccessfully on Prime Minister Ferenc 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.

In 2009, Sólyom was refused entry to Slovakia to attend the dedication of a statue of King Saint Stephen in the border town of Komárno on 21 August, an incident reported in Hungary as tantamount to a declaration of persona non grata which further worsened already tense Hungary–Slovakia relations. Sólyom said that "this is a situation unheard of, inexcusable and unexplainable in the relationship of two allied countries." Slovakia's government, containing the ultranationalist SNS party, claimed that the Hungarian President's presence is a "threat to national security". 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. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in October 2012 that the prohibition on his entry into Slovakia in 2009 did not compromise his freedom 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.

On 5 August 2010, Sólyom was succeeded as president by Pál Schmitt.

Personal life and death László Sólyom and his wife Erzsébet Sólyom (far right) with US President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush, 22 June 2006

In 1966, he married a school teacher named Erzsébet (née Nagy; 1944–2015), a fellow student at the Pécs Conservatory. They had two children: Beáta Sólyom and Benedek Sólyom, as well as eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. After his wife's death, Sólyom walked Camino 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.

Sólyom died of cancer on 8 October 2023, at age 81, in Budapest. His funeral was attended by numerous politicians and public figures, including incumbent head of state Katalin Novák, former presidents Pál Schmitt and János Áder, house speaker László Kövér, cardinal Péter Erdő and apostolic nuncio Michael Banach, in addition to various members of the Hungarian government and opposition parties.

Awards and honours Humboldt Prize (1998) Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1998) Grand Cross of the Order of the Three Stars (31 August 2006) Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great (31 August 2006) Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (2006) Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (25 May 2007) Grand Cross with Chain of the National Order of Merit (31 May 2007) Collar of the National Order of Merit (2 June 2007) First Class of the Order of Friendship (23 November 2007) Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (7 July 2008) Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru (24 September 2008) Hungarian Freedom Prize (2013)