With 139 votes in favor and no abstentions or votes against, the Hungarian Parliament has suspended the parliamentary immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, against whom an investigation based on allegations of theft may be launched.
Two weeks after the 2024 European Parliament elections, in the early hours of June 21, Magyar got into an altercation at a nightclub in Budapest with a man who kept filming him. At one point, Magyar suddenly snatched the phone from the victim’s hand and later threw it into the Danube. The phone was later retrieved from the water with the help of divers.
In September 2024, the Office of the Prosecutor General submitted a request with the European Parliament to waive the immunity of the politician; however, the European Parliament did not grant the request, so the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office terminated the proceedings. The investigation was reopened after Magyar took his seat in the Hungarian Parliament in May, and the Prosecutor’s Office has now requested the MP’s immunity from the Hungarian Parliament. Prime Minister Magyar requested his fellow party members to suspend his immunity. He maintains that he did not commit a crime and would do the same thing he did back then again today.
“Everyone is equal before the law, regardless of whether you’re a factory worker, a member of parliament, or the prime minister. Viktor Orbán’s former corrupt ministers learned this lesson today as well. Those who have nothing to hide are not afraid to face the justice system,” Péter Magyar posted after Parliament suspended his parliamentary immunity, along with that of Balázs Hankó (Fidesz) and Miklós Seszták (KDNP). In case of both politicians from the former governing coalition, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that their immunity be waived due to corruption charges.
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