
Hungary’s chief prosecutor on Tuesday requested that Parliament lift the immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar and two former ministers from Viktor Orbán’s government to allow corruption investigations to proceed.
The requests target Magyar over a 2024 incident in which he allegedly took a man’s phone while being filmed at a Budapest nightclub and threw it into the Danube. Prosecutors also seek to strip immunity from former Culture Minister Balázs Hankó and ex-National Development Minister Miklós Seszták, both allies of Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition. Hankó is suspected of misusing 17.3 billion forints (€47 million) in public funds, while Seszták faces allegations of receiving bribes totaling 11 billion forints in a bus procurement scandal.
Magyar, in a Facebook video, called the simultaneous requests a “shameful” attempt by a “defeated mafia’s prosecutorial rearguard” to conflate high-level corruption cases with what he described as a politically motivated smear against him. He urged Parliament to convene an emergency session to suspend his immunity immediately, stating he would “proudly” face authorities to highlight prosecutorial responsibility for enabling past corruption. The prosecutor’s office has not publicly responded to Magyar’s accusations.
Parliament must now decide whether to lift the immunity of all three lawmakers. Previous attempts to strip Magyar’s immunity as an MEP were rejected by the European Parliament, halting the investigation until his election to Hungary’s legislature in April.
Follow us for live European news