Nothing like it has been seen before: within 48 hours of losing his parliamentary immunity, the former Fidesz MP was in custody.
The police acted with such remarkable speed that one can be certain all relevant evidence against the governing party’s former representative had already been assembled, allowing officers from the Central Investigative Office to arrive at his residence at dawn with a search warrant in hand. The MP was at home, despite having been aware since mid-April that he might soon face serious trouble.
Zoltán Bóna, a former Fidesz MP, is believed to be involved
Although the Central Chief Prosecutor’s Office did not name the individual in its statement, information obtained by Telex, along with the circumstances made public, point to Zoltán Bóna, who has represented Halásztelek and its surrounding area continuously since 2014. According to well-founded suspicions, he exploited his entitlement to employ staff to assist in his parliamentary duties in order to generate additional personal income.
He is alleged to have employed the 70-year-old mother of Halásztelek’s Fidesz mayor, Barnabás Nagy. However, the woman is suspected of having carried out no actual work, merely collecting a substantial salary, most of which she then passed on to her son. He, in turn, is believed to have redistributed a significant portion of these funds to Mr Bóna, the constituency’s Fidesz MP.
A tidy sum changing hands each month
Between 12 September 2024 and 22 April 2026, the employee received a total of 14,301,250 forints, equating to approximately 750,000 forints per month. All this occurred despite Barnabás Nagy having been elected mayor of Halásztelek with a confident majority in June 2024. The 30-year-old politician appeared to have a promising career ahead of him, having already served as a municipal councillor and deputy mayor at the age of 25 in 2019.
Notably, prosecutors did not limit themselves to conducting a search: Zoltán Bóna was also taken into custody. He faces additional charges linked to the alleged corruption offences outlined above, including the use of falsified official documents. The mayor remains under criminal supervision at home, while his mother is defending herself at liberty.
RTL News shared footage how police officers escorted the former MP to a police van from his Dunavarsány home, where they were conducting a house search for hours:
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Other high-profile arrests
This is not the first instance of members of parliament being detained, even while in office. Roland Mengyi, a Fidesz–KDNP MP elected in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, was imprisoned in 2020 after it emerged that, following 2015, he had offered assistance to social cooperatives applying for European Union funds in exchange for between 50 and 90 per cent of the awarded subsidies being returned to him.
Pál Völner, a former Deputy Minister of Justice, is suspected of having regularly accepted millions of forints from György Schadl, head of the Hungarian Chamber of Bailiffs, by abusing his supervisory and administrative powers. Völner is currently at liberty pending proceedings; his mandate ended in May 2022 after he did not stand in the election. Since last December, he has even resumed work as a lawyer, although this is now under review by the bar association.
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