Politics
Hungary’s Parliament has approved the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar and two other lawmakers, paving the way for criminal investigations into separate cases.
Hungary’s Parliament has approved the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar and two other lawmakers, paving the way for criminal investigations into separate cases. The measure was approved by 139 votes, with no votes against or abstentions. Prime Minister Péter Magyar is facing an investigation into alleged theft after prosecutors accused him of taking a man’s mobile phone and throwing it into the Danube River. The incident took place in June 2024, when a man was filming Magyar at a nightclub in Budapest. Magyar objected, took the man’s phone, and a confrontation followed. Security guards subsequently removed them from the club. According to prosecutors, Magyar later threw a black object into the river, which was allegedly the man’s mobile phone. The phone, reportedly worth around 100,000 Hungarian forints (approximately €250), was later recovered from the river in good condition and returned to its owner.
In September 2024, Hungary’s Prosecutor General requested that the European Parliament waive Magyar’s immunity in connection with the case. The request was not granted, and the proceedings were subsequently closed. After Magyar became a member of Hungary’s Parliament in May, he gained parliamentary immunity at the national level. Prosecutors then reopened the investigation and requested that the Hungarian Parliament lift his immunity. Magyar himself supported the lifting of his immunity and has denied committing a crime. He has described the case as politically motivated. Along with the Prime Minister, Parliament also lifted the immunity of two former ministers from Viktor Orbán’s government: former Culture and Innovation Minister Balázs Hankó and former National Development Minister Miklós Seszták. Hankó is being investigated in a case involving alleged misuse of public funds amounting to approximately €40 million, while Seszták is under investigation over allegations of accepting billions of forints in bribes in connection with the Volánbusz case. Both former ministers deny wrongdoing.
