Hungary’s Parliament has lifted immunity from Prime Minister Peter Magyar and two ministers in former leader Viktor Orban’s nationalist government, clearing the way for prosecutors to pursue separate criminal investigations into each of them.
The vote was overwhelmingly in favor, following a request from prosecutors seeking to investigate Magyar, ministers Balazs Hanko and Miklos Sesztak, and a June 2024 nightclub incident where Magyar allegedly threw a mobile phone into the Danube River.
Orban’s Fidesz party and its ally KDNP boycotted the session. The investigations stem from allegations of embezzlement and bribery, suspected of totaling over 40 million euros ($46m) and used for the 2026 parliamentary election campaign and personal benefit.
Hanko, a legislator from Orban’s Fidesz party, is accused of embezzling more than 40 million euros in public funds, alleged to be used for the 2026 election campaign and personal benefit.
Sesztak is under investigation over allegedly accepting more than $37.2m in bribes and kickbacks related to vehicle procurements, as well as state construction projects.
Both ministers deny any wrongdoing.
The cases come less than six months after Magyar’s Tisza party ended Orban’s 16 years in power with a landslide election victory. Magyar campaigned on pledges to tackle corruption, restore rule-of-law safeguards, and rebuild Hungary’s relationship with the European Union.
Magyar’s government has since made fighting alleged corruption and overpriced public procurement a central part of its programme, including plans for a new asset-recovery office focused on wrongdoing linked to the Orban era.
Source: Al Jazeera
