Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has nominated Member of the European Parliament Janos Áder to serve as the next President of Hungary, prime minister’s spokesman Péter Szijjártó said late Monday.

Fidesz Parliamentary Group Leader János Lázár announced last week that Parliament would elect the prime minister’s presidential nominee on May 2, at the conclusion of a nomination procedure starting on Tuesday. 


In a statement to MTI, Áder said he had accepted the nomination after thoroughly considering “the weight of the function and the personal responsibility involved” and would return to Hungary from the European Parliament and give up his membership in Fidesz, of which Prime Minister Orbán serves as chairman. 


The new president will replace Pál Schmitt, who resigned from the post on April 2, after Budapest’s Semmelweis University withdrew his doctoral title.