Hungary’s chief prosecutor has asked the president of the European Parliament to suspend the parliamentary immunity of Prime Minister Orbán’s main political rival, MEP Péter Magyar, the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday (26 September).
Chief prosecutor Péter Polt, a supporter of Orbán and former member of the ruling Fidesz party, said in a statement that Magyar had allegedly seized the cellphone of a man who had recorded him in a bar on 21 June.
“Then the MEP walked down right to the riverbank and dropped it into the Danube. This behaviour can correspond to the offence of theft,” the statement said.
The device was later recovered and returned to its owner.
A spokesperson for Magyar referred Reuters to a post on his Facebook page, in which he noted that Polt was a founding member of Fidesz, but did not specifically comment on the case of the alleged phone theft.
The EP Press Service told Reuters in an emailed reply that the European Parliament does not comment on individual cases nor on potential judicial proceedings.
Magyar, who entered the political scene in February, leads a centre-right party that is now supported by 39% of likely voters, compared with 43% for Orbán’s Fidesz, according to a survey published by pollster Median in early September.
Magyar’s Respect and Freedom Party’ Tisza’ won 29.6% of the vote at the 9 June European elections and seven of Hungary’s 21 seats in the European Parliament. His delegation came second to Orbán’s Fidesz, which had the worst-ever result in an EU election, winning 44 % of the vote and 10 seats.
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Tisza’s MEPs, including Magyar, joined the European People’s Party’s (EPP) group. Orbán’s Fidesz party was suspended from EPP in 2019 and left the group in 2021.
Fidesz MEPs now sit in the Patriots for Europe group chaired by Jordan Bardella from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party.
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(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
Source: euractiv.com
