The first in history: Hungary in a move against the prime minister

The news in brief:

• The Hungarian parliament removed the prime minister’s immunity with 139 in favor and zero against.
• Medyar said before the vote: “I accept responsibility for all my actions.”
• The prosecution wants to prosecute him for the crime of stealing a little more than $300.
• The gist of the case: hijacking the phone of a person who photographed him without his permission more than two years ago.
  

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The Parliament in Hungary voted today (Monday) in favor of removing the immunity of Prime Minister Petar Medyar, to allow the prosecution to advance an investigation against him in an affair that began even before he was elected to office. In doing so, Medyar became the first prime minister in the history of Hungary to have his criminal immunity removed during his tenure.

Unusually, Medyar himself asked his party members to support the move. “I did not commit a crime, I accept responsibility for all my actions,” he said before the vote. “He who has nothing to hide comes forward openly.”

The case concerns an incident from June 2024 in a night club in the center of Budapest. According to the lawsuit, Madyar noticed a person taking pictures of him without his permission, and after an argument between them, grabbed the phone from his hands and put it in his pocket. The owner of the phone repeatedly asked him to return the device, but according to the lawsuit Medyar refused. After security escorted him out of the club, he walked towards the Danube River, with the owner of the phone and other witnesses following him, and deliberately threw him into the water.

The prosecution is investigating Medyar on suspicion of petty theft. He denies that his actions constitute theft and claims that the proceedings against him stem from political motives. According to reports, the alleged damage in the case only slightly exceeds $300. The incident itself took place almost two years before his party won the elections and ousted Viktor Orban as Prime Minister.

The attempt to advance proceedings against Medyar is not new. During the Orbán government, when Medyar served as a member of the European Parliament, Hungary requested to remove his immunity to allow the investigation of the affair, but the European Parliament repeatedly refused. Now that Madyar is serving as Prime Minister and a member of the Hungarian Parliament, the prosecution has sought to lift his immunity once again.

This time Madyar himself chose to support the removal of immunity and even asked his party to vote in favor. The step allows the authorities to advance the investigation, but does not constitute confirmation that he has committed any wrongdoing. 139 MPs supported the removal of immunity, and the vote passed unanimously among those present. Members of Fidesz, Orban’s opposition party, and its partners from the Christian Democrats party, boycotted the meeting.

In the same vote, the immunity of two former ministers in the Orban government was also removed. Blaze Hanko, former Minister of Culture, is suspected of involvement in the misuse of funds from the National Fund for Culture. According to the lawsuit, funds intended to support cultural projects were distributed for political reasons and were also used to cover the election expenses of the Fidesz party. In addition, the immunity of Miklos Sestak, former Minister of Urban Development, who is suspected of taking bribes and illegal payments related to the purchase of vehicles for the government bus company and public construction projects, was also removed.

Medyar criticized the prosecution’s decision to submit the requests in his case and in the case of the two former ministers together. In his opinion, this is how the telephone case, in which the alleged damage is slightly more than $300, is tied up in cases involving tens of millions of dollars of public money. On the other hand, Fidesz members described the proceedings against two members of their party as political persecution on the part of the Madyar government.