Hungary’s Parliament voted on Monday, September 29, 2026, to lift the parliamentary immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar and two former ministers from Viktor Orbán’s administration. The move clears the path for prosecutors to pursue separate criminal investigations, less than six months after Magyar’s Tisza party ended Orbán’s 16-year hold on power.
The Bottom Line
- The Vote: Parliament voted overwhelmingly to strip immunity from Prime Minister Péter Magyar and former ministers Balázs Hankó and Miklós Seszták, while Orbán’s Fidesz party and its ally KDNP boycotted the session.
- The Allegations: Magyar faces a theft probe regarding a 2024 nightclub phone-tossing incident, while Hankó and Seszták face multi-million-euro corruption and bribery allegations.
- The Political Stakes: These proceedings represent the first graft investigations targeting top government figures from Orbán’s 16-year tenure, testing Magyar’s anti-corruption platform.
Parliamentary Vote Strips Immunity for Magyar and Former Ministers
The Hungarian legislature moved on Monday, September 29, 2026, following formal requests from prosecutors last week. Legislators voted overwhelmingly in favor of lifting the immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar alongside former Minister of Culture Balázs Hankó and former Minister of National Development Miklós Seszták. Meanwhile, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party and its ally KDNP boycotted the legislative session.
The investigations open distinct legal fronts for the sitting administration and the opposition. Magyar actively requested that lawmakers strip his immunity so he could confront what he termed an ongoing “character assassination.” Conversely, the probes targeting Hankó and Seszták constitute the first corruption investigations directed at top government figures from Orbán’s 16 years in power.
Dueling Allegations Range From Nightclub Disputations to Embezzlement
The criminal probes involve vastly different sets of circumstances and financial scales. In Magyar’s case, prosecutors are investigating an incident from June 2024 at a Budapest nightclub. Authorities allege that the current prime minister snatched a mobile phone from an individual who was filming him and threw the device into the Danube River. Magyar has dismissed the case as a “sham,” accusing prosecutors of trying to conflate his dispute with the financial crimes attributed to the former ministers.
The financial allegations against the Orbán-era officials carry severe legal weight. Balázs Hankó, a lawmaker from Fidesz, faces accusations of embezzling more than €40 million in public funds. Prosecutors claim these diverted resources helped finance the 2026 parliamentary election campaign while serving personal interests. In a separate case, Miklós Seszták, a lawmaker from the KDNP, is under investigation for allegedly accepting more than $37.2m in bribes and kickbacks. Those allegations connect to vehicle procurements under the state bus company and state construction projects. Both former ministers deny any wrongdoing.
Political Fallout Following the Fall of Orbán’s 16-Year Era
These legal developments arrive less than half a year after Magyar’s Tisza party swept to power in a landslide electoral victory in April, breaking Orbán’s 16-year rule. Magyar campaigned on promises to tackle corruption, restore rule-of-law safeguards, and rebuild Hungary’s relationship with the European Union.
True to those electoral pledges, the new administration has made fighting alleged corruption and overpriced public procurement a central part of its programme. Plans are already underway to establish a new asset-recovery office designed to target wrongdoing linked directly to the Orbán era. With parliamentary immunity now lifted, prosecutors possess the clearance required to advance these criminal probes.
| Official | Political Affiliation | Investigation Details |
|---|---|---|
| Péter Magyar | Tisza Party (Prime Minister) | Theft investigation regarding a 2024 nightclub phone-tossing incident in Budapest. |
| Balázs Hankó | Fidesz (Former Minister of Culture) | Embezzlement probe involving over €40 million in public funds. |
| Miklós Seszták | KDNP (Former Minister of National Development) | Bribery and kickback probe connected to state bus and construction projects. |
