Péter Magyar could lose his immunity today, alongside Ilaria Salis – updates

The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is set to decide today on whether to lift the immunity of five MEPs, including Péter Magyar, leader of Tisza and vocal critic of Viktor Orbán, and Ilaria Salis, who is wanted by Hungarian authorities over the 2023 antifa-related attacks in Budapest.

The 25 members of JURI will cast secret votes on seven requests to strip immunity, following which they will recommend whether to approve or reject each case. The ultimate decision will be taken in a plenary session, where all MEPs can either uphold or overturn the committee’s recommendations. Should immunity be lifted, national authorities would be free to initiate legal proceedings against the MEPs, though they would retain their parliamentary seats.

Three of these requests originate from Hungarian authorities: one targets Magyar, another concerns Ilaria Salis, and the third involves Klára Dobrev, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány’s ex-wife and leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition. The other two MEPs in question belong to Poland’s ruling PiS party, with Poland’s authorities requesting their immunity be lifted.

What’s the issue with Péter Magyar?

According to Euronews, Hungarian authorities seek to waive Magyar’s immunity to advance investigations into three allegations:

• Allegedly throwing a man’s phone into the Danube following a nightclub dispute in Budapest.
• A defamation lawsuit filed against him by former Fidesz MP György Simonka.
• Similar legal action initiated by the far-right Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk).

Opposition parties dismiss all three charges as politically motivated, noting that Magyar has consistently led all independent polls since last autumn.

• Extensive secret poll indicates PM Orbán may win in 2026 again: is Péter Magyar in trouble?

“I believe it’s clear to everyone this is a political matter. I’m a 44-year-old lawyer with three children, a spotless record, and I have held national security clearances for over half of the last two decades due to my professional roles and my ex-wife,” Magyar told the JURI Committee. His ex-wife is none other than Hungary’s former Justice Minister, Judit Varga. Euronews suggests that Magyar’s immunity is unlikely to be lifted, which means he would not lose his seat.

Click to read more about Péter Magyar and his Tisza Party.

Will Ilaria Salis lose her immunity?

Hungarian authorities accuse Ilaria Salis of involvement in the assault of two far-right militants in Budapest in February 2023. She was held in pre-trial detention for 15 months in Hungary before being elected as an MEP.

• PM Orbán’s new target: the antifa movement could be labeled a terrorist organisation in Hungary

“In Budapest, I would face a show trial without fundamental democratic safeguards, in a judicial system lacking independence, where the prime minister has already declared me guilty before trial. For charges considered minor elsewhere, I could be sentenced to 24 years of hard labour,” she told reporters ahead of the JURI session.

Euronews reports that parliamentary sources suggest the European People’s Party (EPP) might back the lifting of immunity in her case, voting alongside the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE).

The Hungarian government’s international spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, responded by simply sending Salis contact details for the Márianosztra women’s prison in Hungary.

47.8690° N 18.8699° E https://t.co/lJNXgRfQ2O

— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) September 18, 2025

PM Orbán’s Fidesz on Magyar’s case: “he makes everything up and promises everything”

Opposition Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar “is preparing a big announcement to deflect attention away from the fact that the European Parliament is discussing his immunity”, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis said on Tuesday.

In a post on Facebook, Kocsis wrote that Magyar was engaging in a “big hoax” and trying to “deceive pensioners”. “He makes everything up and promises everything…” he said, adding that he did not talk about anything that was “embarrassing for him”.

Kocsis insisted that Magyar had made disparaging remarks about pensioners and that his party “doesn’t think the 13th month pension is a good thing”. Further, Magyar had discussed raising the retirement age 11 years ago, the Fidesz politician said. “How much good can this person want for pensioners?”

“Today, too, he uses them to draw media attention from his foul actions, theft, corruption cases and insider trading…” he added.

UPDATE 1: JURI advises against lifting immunity

According to the Eurologus, an Italian MEP said that the European Parliament’s JURI Committee is recommending against lifting the parliamentary immunity of Péter Magyar, Ilaria Salis, and Klára Dobrev.

The final decision will be made by the plenary.

UPDATE 2 – PM Orbán: Brussels proves opposition leader is man in its clutches

“Shameful, disgraceful!” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday after a decision in Brussels not to lift the immunity of Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza Party. “Nothing like this has happened since the change of regime,” Orbán wrote, declaring that Brussels had demonstrated that the opposition leader was “a man in Brussels’ clutches”.

“And he wants to be a governor [sent by Brussels] here. He’s right for the job. But we won’t let him!” Orbán said in the post below which he shared a Hirado.hu article with the headline: “They have decided in Brussels not to support suspending the immunity of Péter Magyar”.

UPDATE 3: Fidesz says EP is legitimising far-left terrorism, Ilaria Salis belongs in prison

Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communication and relations, has called it “incomprehensible and outrageous” that the legal committee of the European Parliament “has legitimised far-left terrorism”.

Kovács said on Facebook that “antifascist Ilaria Salis and her comrades travelled to Hungary with the premeditated goal of randomly beating people on the street purely out of political conviction. This is not a political issue, but terrorism.” “Yet the Brussels comrades are doing everything to let her escape accountability.

By upholding her immunity, they are not only excusing a criminal but in fact harboring an antifascist terrorist,” Kovács said. “We will not forget, and we will not give up. Ilaria Salis is a dangerous criminal who belongs in prison,” the state secretary said.