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BUDAPEST — Hungary's Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Monday to strip Prime Minister Peter Magyar and two ministers from Viktor Orban's former nationalist government of their legal immunity, a step that allows prosecutors to pursue separate criminal investigations into all three men.
The move followed a formal request submitted by prosecutors last week, and it produced the first serious corruption investigations aimed at senior figures who served at the highest levels of government during Orban's 16 years in power. The two former ministers, both still sitting as lawmakers, are suspected of large-scale embezzlement and bribery.
Magyar, the incumbent prime minister, is the subject of a theft investigation. He himself asked lawmakers to lift his immunity, arguing that the case against him is an attempt at "character assassination" and that he wants the opportunity to exonerate himself in open court. Lawmakers approved overwhelmingly.
The prime minister's case stems from an incident at a Budapest nightclub in June 2024. Prosecutors allege that Magyar took a mobile phone from a man who was filming him and threw the device into the Danube River. Magyar has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as a "sham" and last week accused prosecutors of seeking to "conflate" the cases against the former Orban-era ministers with what he described as a political attempt to destroy his reputation — a strategy he said "has already failed several times."
The two former ministers face far heavier allegations. Balazs Hanko, who served as culture minister and remains a legislator for Orban's Fidesz party, is accused of embezzling more than 40 million euros ($46m) in public funds. According to prosecutors, part of that money was used to help finance the 2026 parliamentary election campaign, with the remainder allegedly benefiting individuals personally.
Miklos Sesztak, the former national development minister and a lawmaker for the Fidesz ally KDNP, is under investigation over allegedly accepting more than $37.2m in bribes and kickbacks. The payments are said to be tied to vehicle procurements through Hungary's state bus company as well as to state construction projects — two areas where public spending has been especially large and, critics argue, especially vulnerable to inflated contracts.
Both former ministers deny any wrongdoing. Their cases, however, carry significance far beyond the individuals involved: they mark the opening move in an attempt to hold the previous governing party accountable for the procurement practices that critics say characterized the Orban years.
The political context is striking. The investigations come less than six months after Magyar's Tisza party ended Orban's 16-year rule with a landslide election victory. Magyar campaigned on explicit promises to tackle corruption, restore rule-of-law safeguards and rebuild Hungary's strained relationship with the European Union — areas where Brussels had repeatedly clashed with the previous government over judicial independence, media and the rule of law.
Since taking office, the new government has placed the fight against alleged corruption and overpriced public procurement at the centre of its programme. Part of that effort includes plans for a new asset-recovery office dedicated to investigating and recovering assets linked to wrongdoing during the Orban era. Immunity proceedings of this kind are generally the necessary precursor to such work: prosecutors cannot question suspects, seize documents or compel testimony without the formal removal of parliamentary protection.
The vote itself was notable for what was missing from the chamber. Orban's Fidesz party and its smaller ally KDNP boycotted the session, meaning the two former ministers' own parties declined to participate in the proceedings that opened corruption cases against their colleagues. The absence suggests the former ruling camp intends to contest the investigations rather than cooperate with them, which could make prosecutions lengthy and politically charged.
Because both Hanko and Sesztak remain members of parliament, further proceedings could eventually require a second vote. Immunity is normally lifted only for the specific conduct under investigation, and any extension to other suspected offences would have to be voted on separately — a process that may test the governing majority's durability.
Analysts note that bringing cases against one's own former coalition colleagues carries political risk as well as institutional reward. Prosecutors pursuing allegations that touch a previous administration — and, in Magyar's case, the current head of government — operate in an environment where accusations of political motivation are difficult to separate from genuine criminal inquiry. Magyar's insistence that the theft case is fabricated, and his claim that prosecutors are merging it with the Orban-era files, underscores how tightly the three matters have become politically entangled.
The government's agenda is also shaped by pressures beyond the courtroom. As a recent illustration of the strains facing the administration, Hungary's sole nuclear power plant at Paks was shut down for the first time since opening in 1982 in July, after record-low water levels in the Danube left the plant's suction pipes unable to reach the cooling water. With the facility supplying nearly half of the country's electricity, Magyar warned of a possible energy crisis, pointing to the wider consequences of a summer of high temperatures and low rainfall.
The Paks episode and the immunity votes together underscore a central challenge for the new leadership: restoring institutional credibility while delivering on promises, in a country where public trust in politics has been eroded by years of opaque contracting and elite impunity. Removing immunity from a sitting prime minister — at his own request — is an unusual and symbolically loaded gesture, and one that will be watched closely as a test of whether Hungary's courts and prosecutors can act independently of political leadership.
For now, the immediate consequences are procedural rather than judicial. No wrongdoing has been established against any of the three men; all three maintain their innocence. What the Monday vote delivers is access — the legal ability to investigate, charge and, if prosecutors prove their case, ultimately try Hungary's prime minister alongside two of his most senior predecessors' allies.
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