András Patyi

András Patyi's career is a textbook case of the revolving door between Hungary's public institutions. From 2013 to 2018 he was a member and then chairman of the National Election Commission (NVB), a period in which he earned the nickname 'the fine champion' after the NVB's campaign-law fines — including one involving kindergarteners — drew public criticism from Viktor Orbán in a video. The day his NVB chairmanship ended, September 4, 2018, he became a judge and immediately a panel president at the Kúria (Supreme Court) — a specially tailored law, nicknamed 'lex Patyi,' let him skip the competitive selection process and step straight into a senior judicial post, even though, as one judge quoted in the press noted, panel-president posts normally go to judges who have already proven themselves over years. On April 1, 2021, President János Áder appointed him Kúria vice-president for a six-year term, and in 2023 Parliament elected him to the Constitutional Court. In the space of a few years Patyi thus moved from election administration through the country's highest ordinary court to its constitutional court, each step backed by a government-party political decision rather than open competition.