Hungary’s parliament on Monday lifted Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s parliamentary immunity, allowing prosecutors to proceed with an investigation into a suspected mobile phone theft.

Lawmakers approved the motion by 139 votes, with no opposition and no abstentions.

Mr Magyar had urged members of his governing Tisza Party to support the motion, insisting that he had nothing to hide and should be subject to the same laws as other citizens.

The investigation relates to an incident at a Budapest nightclub on June 21, 2024, shortly after the European Parliament elections.

According to the allegations, Mr Magyar became involved in a confrontation with a man who was recording him and took the man’s mobile phone before throwing it into the Danube River.

Divers later recovered the phone from the river.

Hungarian prosecutors first asked the European Parliament to lift Mr Magyar’s immunity in September 2024, but the request was rejected.

The investigative prosecutor’s office subsequently closed the case.

Following Mr Magyar’s departure from the European Parliament and his entry into Hungary’s Parliament after the 2026 election, the investigation was reopened.

Prosecutors then asked Hungarian lawmakers to lift his immunity so the investigation could proceed.

Addressing lawmakers before the vote, Mr Magyar said “everyone must take responsibility before the law” and reiterated that he had “nothing to hide.”

He, however, accused members of what he called the “Orban mafia” of attempting to portray the case as involving serious criminal offences and of engaging in character assassination.

Lifting the immunity removes the parliamentary protection that had prevented Hungarian authorities from pursuing the case against Mr Magyar.

 (Xinhua/NAN)