On Monday, Hungary’s parliament voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of three MPs, including the country’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar, amid ongoing criminal investigations.
As AP reports, prosecutors are investigating a case against Magyar on suspicion of petty theft. Investigators say that in June 2024, during a dispute at a nightclub, he took a man’s mobile phone and then threw it into the Danube. This happened almost two years before his party won the election, ousting Viktor Orbán from power.
Magyar denies that his actions can be classified as theft and calls the case politically motivated. The alleged damage in the case is only just over $300.
Ahead of the vote, Magyar told MPs that he “did not commit a crime” and that he takes responsibility for all his actions.
On Monday, Hungarian MPs also voted to suspend the immunity of two former ministers from Orbán’s government.
On Monday, parliament lifted the immunity of Balázs Hanko, a former culture minister in Orbán’s government. He is suspected of overseeing the illegal use of about $53.6 million from Hungary’s National Cultural Fund.
According to prosecutors, Hanko personally interfered in the allocation of the fund’s resources intended to support cultural projects, guided by political considerations. He is also suspected of using these funds to finance Orbán’s Fidesz party’s election campaign ahead of the April vote.
Prosecutors also suspect Miklós Szeszták, a former development minister in Orbán’s government who was also stripped of immunity, of receiving more than $37.2 million in bribes and illegal payments. Investigators say they were linked to vehicle procurement for Hungary’s state bus company, as well as to state construction projects.
MPs from Fidesz and its coalition partner, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, did not take part in Monday’s vote. They described the allegations against their fellow party members as an expression of the Magyar government’s “political tyranny”.
None of the MPs stripped of immunity has yet been charged.