A European parliamentary committee yesterday rejected a bid by Hungary’s Prime Minister to remove the legal immunity from prosecution of one of Viktor Orbán’s main political rivals.
MEP Péter Magyar, who heads Tisza, Hungary’s largest opposition party, poses the most serious challenge to Orbán since the right-wing populist leader took office in 2010.
Orbán’s government sought to have Magyar’s immunity lifted so he could face charges for alleged offences that include theft of a mobile phone in a Budapest nightclub and defamation against a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party.
Once an insider within Orbán’s political circle, Magyar broke with Fidesz to launch Tisza, which the latest polls suggest has overtaken Fidesz as Hungary faces a chronically weak economy and persistent inflation.
Ahead of Hungarian elections next April, Orbán has launched a full-scale communication barrage against his rival, leading some analysts and domestic critics to believe he may be laying the groundwork to try to disqualify Magyar from the vote.
Orbán wrote on Facebook that the committee’s decision to uphold Tisza’s parliamentary immunity was “shameful, disgraceful” and proof that the leader of the opposition is Brussels’ man. “
The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee also blocked the Budapest government’s attempt to strip immunity from two other MEPs, including that of Klára Dobrev, leader of Hungarian opposition party Democratic Coalition.
It also upheld the immunity of Italian lawmaker Ilaria Salis, who faced prosecution in Hungary for her alleged role in assaults by antifascist activists on far-right demonstrators in Budapest in 2023.
Salis was jailed for more than a year in Hungary before winning a seat in the European Parliament, whose elected members enjoy immunity. Hungarian authorities sought to bring about her return to Hungary for trial, where prosecutors sought an 11-year prison sentence.
Calling the committee vote “a victory for the rule of law”, David Cormand, a French MEP with the Greens coalition, explained to the Associated Press why he had voted to uphold Salis’ immunity.
“The European Parliament has today sent a clear message: it will not be used as a tool for intimidation by Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian regime. By protecting Ilaria Salis, we have protected the integrity of the European Parliament, democracy and the rights of European citizens.”
