Hungary lifts immunity of Hungarian prime minister and two Orban-era ministers | Corruption News

Hungarian Parliament lifts immunity of outgoing leader and two former Orban ministers, paving way for criminal investigations.

Hungary’s parliament has stripped Prime Minister Peter Magyar and two ministers from former leader Viktor Orban’s nationalist government of their immunity, paving the way for prosecutors to conduct separate criminal investigations into each of them.

Monday’s vote came after Magyar, who is under investigation for theft, specifically requested that his immunity be lifted so he could clear himself of “defamation.” The investigations against Orban-era ministers – suspected of embezzlement and bribery – are the first corruption probes against senior government officials during Orban’s 16 years in power.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to lift their immunity.

Orban’s Fidesz party and its ally KDNP boycotted the session.

The vote responded to a request last week from prosecutors to investigate Magyar, as well as former Culture Minister Balazs Hanko and former National Development Minister Miklos Sesztak.

Magyar is under investigation for an incident at a Budapest nightclub in June 2024, when prosecutors allege he took the cellphone of a man who was filming him and threw it into the Danube.

Magyar called the case a “sham” and last week accused prosecutors of trying to “confuse” the ex-ministers’ cases “with the attempted political defamation… which has already failed several times.”

Corruption cases

Hanko, a lawmaker from Orban’s Fidesz party, is accused of embezzling more than 40 million euros ($46 million) in public funds. Prosecutors say the money was used to finance the 2026 parliamentary election campaign and for the personal benefit of others.

Sesztak, a KDNP lawmaker, is under investigation for allegedly accepting more than $37.2 million in bribes and kickbacks related to vehicle purchases under Hungary’s national bus company, as well as state construction projects.

Both ministers deny any wrongdoing.

The cases come less than six months after the Magyar Tisza party ended Orban’s 16 years in power with a landslide electoral victory. Magyar campaigned on a pledge to fight corruption, restore rule of law guarantees and rebuild Hungary’s strained relations with the European Union.

His government has since made tackling alleged corruption and overpriced public procurement a central part of its agenda, including plans for a new asset recovery office focused on wrongdoing linked to the Orban era.