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Slovak PM Fico would have fled to Hungary, Péter Magyar claims – here’s Fico’s remark
On 4 May 2022, Robert Fico, now Slovakia’s Prime Minister, faced a make-or-break vote in parliament. Slovak MPs were considering whether to strip the then opposition leader of his parliamentary immunity. The motion ultimately failed by a narrow margin. Yet Péter Magyar claims that, had the crucial threshold of 76 votes been reached, a Hungarian government car was standing by to spirit Robert Fico across the border to Hungary. At the time, Péter Magyar was part of Fidesz’s inner circle; his wife was serving as justice minister in Viktor Orbán’s fourth government. The allegation, if true, would cast a sharp light on the political drama of that day — and on the closeness of relations between Fico and Budapest at a moment when his own legal position appeared perilous.
Would Fico have fled to Hungary to evade accountability?
We now know that it did not happen. Of the Slovak legislature’s 150 MPs, only 74 voted to suspend Robert Fico’s parliamentary immunity — short of the required majority, despite the governing coalition’s numerical dominance and Fico’s position in opposition at the time.
According to Péter Magyar, however, Viktor Orbán was taking no chances. A Hungarian government car, he claims, was waiting on the Hungarian side of the border for Slovakia’s former prime minister, should the vote have gone against him.
Magyar insists Fico would have sought refuge in Hungary to avoid prosecution. At the time, prosecutors had accused him of forming a criminal organisation, abusing public office and breaching tax secrecy.
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- Hungary grants asylum to former Minister Ziobro and other Polish citizens
Murder of Ján Kuciak (2018): Investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée were murdered while he was investigating ties between the Slovak government and the Italian mafia (‘Ndrangheta). The subsequent public outrage and mass protests over perceived government-linked corruption led to Fico’s resignation in March 2018.
Operation Súmrak (Twilight) (2022): While in opposition, Fico was charged with running an organized criminal group within the government. Investigators alleged he used state organs to illegally gather and weaponize information against political rivals. These charges were eventually scrapped by the prosecutor general in late 2022 due to procedural errors