The Hungarian parliament has lifted the parliamentary immunity of the country's Prime Minister Peter Magyar. He is accused of stealing a phone, Telex reports.
"The National Assembly voted with 139 votes "for" and 0 "against" - with no abstentions - to lift the immunity of Peter Magyar", the publication states.
The head of the Hungarian government had personally requested the lifting of his protection against criminal prosecution on September 22.
"I would be happy to waive my immunity, but I do not have such an opportunity, since the decision must be made by parliament. My conscience is clear. I ask the parliament to immediately lift my immunity," he wrote on the social network X.
The General Prosecutor's Office had previously submitted a request to the Hungarian National Assembly to lift the prime minister's immunity.
Phone theft charges
The proceedings are related to an incident that occurred in June 2024 in a nightclub in Budapest. Magyar, who had just taken office as a member of the European Parliament at the time, got into an argument with a visitor who was trying to film him with a mobile phone. At one point, the politician grabbed the device - worth about 140,000 forints (approximately 400 euros) - and threw it into the Danube River. Later, divers managed to pull the phone from the bottom of the river and return it to its owner in working order.
Magyar himself claims that his opponent was an agent provocateur, specially hired by the authorities from the then ruling party "Fidesz". In addition, the politician claims that the man had been following him before.
"Young people were ordering drinks at the bar and invited me to have a drink with them. Then something unexpected happened. At first, the provocateur stood by the bar and took pictures from there. Then he approached, filmed the faces of the young people, shouted unacceptable curses at me and did everything possible to cause a scandal. Unfortunately, he succeeded," the politician wrote. He added that he grabbed the phone from the man's hands after the opponent insulted his wife and children. The provocateur then began to threaten him and the other party guests.
Meanwhile, the newspaper Ripost presented a different version of the events. According to the publication, Magyar got seriously drunk during the party, after which he behaved aggressively and harassed women for several hours. It is alleged that the owner of the taken phone was simply trying to document the inappropriate behavior of a politician. The future MEP himself rejected the publication, calling it a lie and "government propaganda".
How the investigation into the theft case proceeded
Initially, the police opened a case for disturbing public order and vandalism. Later, according to several media outlets, the charge was changed to theft.
On September 24, 2024, Hungarian Prosecutor General Peter Polt submitted a request to the European Parliament to lift Magyar's immunity. In response, the MEP accused him of political bias. Meanwhile, Viktor Orbán - who was Prime Minister at the time - stated on October 9 that Magyar was using his European mandate to evade justice.
Two months later, the Prosecutor General's Office sent additional requests to the European Parliament; however, the Legal Affairs Committee did not discuss the proposals until January 2025. Hearings on the case dragged on for several months, and on October 7, the European Parliament refused to lift Magyar's immunity, citing "signs of politically motivated persecution".
Following the victory of the "Tisza" party in the parliamentary elections and his election as the new Prime Minister, his mandate as a member of the European Parliament ended, and the Hungarian prosecutor's office resumed the investigation.
On 22 September, amid discussions about lifting his immunity, Magyar confirmed in a statement that he did not consider his actions criminal and that "he would not have acted differently". At a parliamentary session on 22 September, he stated:
"Today I would have acted the same way as then".