Hungary’s chief prosecutor asks EP to lift immunity of Orbán’s main rival

Hungary’s chief prosecutor has asked the European Parliament to lift the immunity from prosecution of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s main political rival. 

MEP Péter Magyar has faced allegations of theft since an incident at the end of June, less than two weeks after the European Parliament election in which his opposition Tisza (Respect and Freedom) party finished second behind Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party on almost 30 percent support.

The case against Magyar, which arose from a scuffle in a nightclub, has been raised regularly in Hungary’s government-controlled press, which was the first to pick up the story. Now, the country’s Prosecutor General Péter Polt, a former member of Fidesz who has been accused of bias toward the Hungarian government, wants to open criminal proceedings against the MEP. 

Magyar was in attendance at the Ötkert nightclub in downtown Budapest in the early hours of June 21 when he got into a heated argument with another guest.

According to a police report obtained by Hungarian news portal Telex, a guest at the club was filming Magyar dancing with women. Magyar objected, and an argument ensued during which Magyar grabbed the man’s phone from his hand.

Magyar was later filmed being led out of the club by security guards, and then walking to the bank of the nearby Danube River where, according to the police report and prosecutors, he threw a “black-colored object” into the water. Magyar has admitted to taking the man’s cell phone but hasn’t admitted to throwing it in the river.

“This behavior may constitute the crime of theft. The phone, worth more than 100,000 forints (€250), was returned to the victim in working condition after the police intervened,” the Office of the Prosecutor General wrote in a statement. 

Polt has asked European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to waive Magyar’s MEP immunity to allow him to be prosecuted.

Magyar posted a sardonic response on Facebook. “How fast and ‘efficient’ Fidesz founder Péter Polt can be,” he wrote. “What is the situation with Tóni, Comrade Prosecutor General?”

The “Tóni” referred to a pending case involving Orbán’s powerful cabinet chief Antal Rogán, whom Magyar accuses of high-level corruption.