Hungary Parliament Strips PM Magyar's Immunity Over Theft Case

On Monday, lawmakers in Hungary voted to revoke the legal protections shielding Prime Minister Peter Magyar and two officials who served under Viktor Orban, allowing prosecutors to move forward with a theft case against Magyar and separate corruption probes into the former ministers.¹³

Vote in parliament

The chamber approved the measure unanimously, 139-0 with nobody abstaining, revoking the immunity protections held by Magyar along with Balazs Hanko, who previously ran the Culture and Innovation Ministry, and Miklos Sesztak, the former National Development Minister, according to Deutsche Welle and Meduza. The Tisza party, which Magyar leads, controls more than two-thirds of parliament seats.¹²⁷

Fidesz and KDNP factions did not attend the extraordinary session, according to Hungarian Conservative. Speaker Agnes Forsthoffer also told lawmakers about a separate voting-equipment incident in which Tisza MP Orsolya Schummer pressed the device of fellow MP Erzsebet Csezy after Csezy had already voted, saying "any malfunction of voting equipment must be reported to the chair rather than resolved by another MP pressing the device."³

The nightclub phone case

According to Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera, prosecutors are looking into an episode from June 2024 at a nightclub in Budapest, where Magyar reportedly seized a man's phone and hurled it into the Danube River. Meduza reported that the phone was eventually retrieved by divers, and that prosecutors revived the investigation in May 2026, following the European Parliament's repeated rejections in September 2024 of Hungarian requests to strip Magyar of his immunity.¹⁴²

Prosecutors are examining suspected misdemeanor theft, with alleged damages reported by ABC News as scarcely exceeding $300, and by TASS as involving a phone worth about €275. TASS reported Magyar could face a fine, community service or up to two years in prison. Magyar has denied any wrongdoing, stating, "I did not commit a crime, and I take responsibility for all my actions. A person with nothing to conceal faces the law directly and without hesitation."⁵⁷⁶

Magyar has described the nightclub patron as a paid provocateur, according to Meduza and Ynetnews, saying he intervened to stop the man from harassing clubgoers. Fidesz and KDNP lawmakers characterised the case differently, according to ABC News, denouncing what they called "political tyranny by Magyar's government," while opponents cited by Ynetnews claimed Magyar had been drunk and behaved wildly.²⁶⁵

Cases against the former ministers

Prosecutors allege Hanko oversaw the misuse of public funds tied to the National Cultural Fund, in more than 1,000 cases according to Deutsche Welle, with the Washington Times reporting the sum involved at roughly $53.6 million. Hungarian Conservative reported that the fund's Temporary College approved 1,079 grants worth more than 17 billion forints, and that prosecutors said money intended for culture was diverted toward the Fidesz election campaign. Al Jazeera reported the embezzled sum at more than 40 million euros, allegedly used to finance the 2026 parliamentary election campaign.¹⁸³⁴

Hanko was served an official summons, was taken into custody at the tax authority's Budapest headquarters and was transferred to Kecskemet for formal questioning, according to Hungarian Conservative. He said, "I have nothing to hide and would face every investigation," and separately, "I would not hide from the authorities or leave voluntarily merely to stage what he said would be a politically motivated arrest."³

Sesztak is under investigation over alleged bribes and kickbacks linked to vehicle procurement contracts at the state-owned bus company Volanbusz, with Al Jazeera citing a figure of more than $37.2 million, a figure not corroborated by ABC News. He voluntarily appeared at the Central Chief Prosecution Office and was detained, according to Hungarian Conservative, telling prosecutors, "I did not know what the Volanbusz case was about." Both former ministers deny wrongdoing.⁴⁵³

Political backdrop

Deutsche Welle reported that Magyar's April victory over Orban came on the strength of a corruption-focused campaign platform, and Al Jazeera noted that the probes into Hanko and Sesztak represent the first such corruption cases targeting senior figures from Orban's 16-year tenure. Magyar announced that his "Operation Purgatory" anti-corruption effort was entering a "landing" phase and said "two corrupt politicians would be handed over to investigators."¹⁴³

Orban, watching from opposition, livestreamed Hanko's departure from parliament on Facebook and called the proceedings a "politically ordered show trial," according to Hungarian Conservative. Ynetnews reported an allegation that corruption cost Hungary between 8 and 10 percent of GDP under Orban's government.³⁶