Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.Strasbourg, France (dpa) – The European Parliament has defended the immunity of three of its members (MEPs) in a dispute with Hungarian authorities.
The immunity of Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar and fellow opposition politician Klára Dobrev was upheld during a vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Additionally, Italian MEP Ilaria Salis narrowly avoided losing her immunity, with 306 MEPs voting to maintain it, 305 against, and 17 abstaining.
Hungary’s judiciary had sought to lift the immunity of the three to pursue criminal charges. Magyar and Dobrev face charges in Hungary for theft and defamation, while left-wing activist Salis is accused of an attack on far-right extremists. Before her election to the European Parliament, Salis had been under house arrest in Budapest.
Magyar has emerged as a serious challenger to Hungary’s right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, marking the first time in years Orbán could face a real rival.
Magyar’s liberal-conservative Tisza Party secured 30% of the vote in the European elections last June. Hungary’s next parliamentary elections are scheduled for spring 2026, with Tisza currently leading Orbán’s Fidesz party by a wide margin in polls.
Orbán is trying to eliminate his political opponent with a smear campaign,” said German Green MEP Daniel Freund.
Markus Ferber, an MEP from the European People’s Party (EPP) and member of Germany’s Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, attempted to call for a re-vote on Salis’s immunity due to technical issues shortly after the narrow result.
However, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola rejected the request. Salis called the vote “a victory for democracy, the rule of law and anti-fascism,” saying it showed that fighting back works. (7 October)
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