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The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament grilled Hungarian MEP Péter Magyar on Tuesday in relation to two attempts to waive the political immunity of the key opponent to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The requests come from different authorities in Hungary seeking the waiver for three distinct cases.
If Magyar were to lose his immunity, Hungarian authorities could investigate and charge him for different suspected offences, all viewed as politically motivated by the opposition. The European Parliament did not comment further on the matter, Magyar told reporters afterwards that he suspected Orbán was behind the process.
“I think it’s obvious to everyone at this Committee as well that this is a political issue. I’m a forty-four-year-old lawyer with three children, a clean record, who has had national security clearances for more than half of the last two decades, because of my jobs and because of my ex-wife. And they’ve never found anything,” Magyar claimed, referring to his ex-wife, Judit Varga, who was the justice minister of Hungary.
The first request to waive Magyar’s immunity was sent by Hungary’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office: last year, the party leader entered an argument in a Budapest nightclub with a man who was filming him. According to the prosecutors, Magyar took the man’s phone and threw it into the Danube.
“Even if I spent the rest of my life throwing pallets of mobile phones into the Danube – which I will not – I wouldn’t cause as much harm to the Hungarian people, nor would I steal as much money as Viktor Orbán and her oligarchs steal in a single hour,” he said.
The legal affairs committee hearings were held behind closed doors, and participants may not reveal details. Later, the Committee will vote on a recommendation whether or not to waive his immunity, followed by a vote at the plenary of the European Parliament. The Committee normally rejects all requests that it sees as politically motivated.
The second case against Magyar relates to a former member of the Hungarian Parliament, György Simonka, who sued Magyar for defamation. The third court case, initiated by the far-right Our Homeland Movement in Hungary, is also for defamation.
“I am ready to waive my immunity at any time if Viktor Orbán and his government fulfill the request of the Hungarian people, including many Fidesz members, and immediately join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. And if he does, it’ll become clear who’ll be in prison for a longer stretch – he or I,” Magyar said.
Magyar’s Tisza party is the biggest challenge to the power of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz in Hungary. The latest opinion poll conducted by Median last week found Tisza to be ahead of Fidesz by 15%, if elections were held now. The Hungarian Parliament earlier adopted a new law allowing Hungary’s National Electoral Office to revoke the mandates of members of the European Parliament if they fail to comply with financial transparency rules.
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