Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar plans to ask chess grandmaster Judit Polgár to become the country's next president in a meeting scheduled for Monday, 20 July. Magyar announced the nomination on Facebook on Sunday, saying he would formally request that Polgár accept the role. The nomination has drawn broad support.
The presidency became vacant after Tamás Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment on Saturday ending his own mandate as head of state. Magyar's Tisza Party, which holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority, is expected to elect a new president before Hungary's national holiday on 20 August. Magyar came to power after winning a landslide victory over Viktor Orbán in April 2026.
Polgár, born in Budapest in 1976, is a five-time Chess Olympiad champion who held the women's world number one ranking for 26 consecutive years and has been a grandmaster since 1991.