Hungarian Prosecutors Seek to Strip PM Péter Magyar of Immunity Over Phone Thrown into the Danube

Hungary's Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday asked parliamentary leadership to suspend the immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar. The request stems from the reopening of a criminal case related to theft, the Hungarian news portal index.hu reported, citing the prosecution service.

According to the office, Magyar held immunity as a member of the European Parliament at the time of the incident. The European Parliament rejected an earlier request to lift his immunity, and proceedings were suspended as a result. However, Magyar's mandate as an MEP expired on 8 May 2026 — the day before he became Hungary's prime minister and a member of the national parliament. That is why prosecutors have ordered the criminal case reopened and are now seeking to lift his new, parliamentary immunity.

What happened at the Budapest club

According to case materials, the incident took place on 26 September 2024. Magyar was at a club in Budapest when, he says, an unknown man began filming him on a mobile phone. Magyar grabbed the phone from him and refused to give it back. "After leaving the club, he headed to the Danube and deliberately threw the phone into the river," the prosecution's statement reads.

At the time, Magyar described the man as a "paid provocateur" for former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party, claiming the man had been following him on previous evenings as well. According to Magyar, he lost his patience when the stranger began bringing up his family and children. "I snatched the phone out of his hands, and he started pushing me and making physical threats," Magyar said at the time. He later apologized for his actions: "It had been a tough, stressful few days. I'm only human, and I made a mistake."

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz