Hungary lifts immunity of Prime Minister Magyar, two Orban-era ministers

Hungary’s Parliament lifts immunity of incumbent leader and two former ministers, clearing the way for criminal probes.

Al Jazeera2026-09-29 01:01查看原文 ↗

Hungary’s Parliament lifts immunity of incumbent leader and two ex-Orban ministers, clearing the way for criminal probes.

Hungary's Prime Minister Peter Magyar speaks during a news conference at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant on July 31, 2026, in Paks, Hungary [Janos Kummer/Getty Images]

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

The vote on Monday came after Magyar, who is being investigated for theft, specifically asked for his immunity to be lifted so he could clear himself of “character assassination”. The probes against the Orban-era ministers – who are suspected of embezzlement and bribery – are the first corruption investigations against top government figures from Orban’s 16 years in power.

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Legislators voted overwhelmingly in favour of lifting their immunity.

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

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

Magyar is being investigated over an incident at a Budapest nightclub in June 2024, when prosecutors allege he took a mobile phone from a man filming him and threw it into the Danube River.

Magyar has called the case a “sham” and last week accused prosecutors of trying “to conflate” the ex-ministers’ cases “with the attempt at political character assassination… which has already failed several times”.

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

Sesztak, a lawmaker from KDNP, is under investigation over allegedly accepting more than $37.2m in bribes and kickbacks connected to vehicle procurements under Hungary’s state bus company, as well as to 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 strained relationship with the European Union.

His 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.

匈牙利议会取消了现任领导人和两名前奥尔班部长的豁免权，为刑事调查扫清了障碍。

2026年7月31日，匈牙利总理彼得·马扎尔在匈牙利帕克斯的帕克斯核电站举行新闻发布会。[Janos Kummer/Getty Images]

匈牙利议会剥夺了总理彼得·马扎尔和前领导人维克托·欧尔班领导的民族主义政府中的两名部长的豁免权，为检察官分别对他们展开刑事调查扫清了障碍。

周一的投票是在马扎尔（Magyar）明确要求取消其豁免权之后进行的。马扎尔因涉嫌盗窃正在接受调查，他希望能够洗清自己“人格诽谤”的罪名。针对奥尔班时代部长们的调查——他们涉嫌贪污和受贿——是奥尔班执政16年来首次针对政府高层人物的腐败调查。

匈牙利提名最高法院前院长安德拉斯·巴卡为总统候选人（共4个名单，此为第1个）

匈牙利选举被欧尔班罢免的最高法院法官为新总统（共4条记录，此为第2条）

匈牙利热浪迫使核电站关闭（共 4 条记录，此为第 3 条）

匈牙利计划在干旱期间关闭唯一一座核电站（共4座，此为第4座）。

立法者以压倒性多数投票赞成取消他们的豁免权。

奥尔班领导的青民盟及其盟友基民盟抵制了此次会议。

此次投票是对检察官上周提出的要求的回应，检察官希望调查马扎尔，以及前文化部长巴拉兹·汉科和前国家发展部长米克洛什·塞斯塔克。

马扎尔因2024年6月在布达佩斯一家夜总会发生的一起事件正在接受调查，检察官指控他从一名拍摄他的男子手中抢走一部手机，并将其扔进了多瑙河。