The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee has blocked Hungary’s request to lift the immunity of Hungarian opposition leader and Tisza Party MEP Péter Magyar, as well as that of Italian far-left MEP Ilaria Salis.
The committee held its vote on Tuesday, with lawmakers deciding to maintain immunity, several anonymous sources told Euractiv.
‘Shame and disgrace,’ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán commented on the decision, adding that ‘nothing like this has happened since the 1989 regime change.’ He continued: ‘Today in Brussels it became clear that the opposition leader is Brussels’ man,’ stressing that governing party Fidesz will not allow Magyar to act as Brussels’ governor in Hungary. There will be no such position, Orbán concluded.
Hungarian authorities had requested the EP to lift Magyar’s immunity after he allegedly stole a mobile phone and threw it into the Danube River during a night out in Budapest in 2024. In addition, two defamation cases are ongoing against the Tisza leader. As the Tisza Party sits in the European People’s Party (EPP), it was no surprise that mainstream forces in Brussels rallied to shield Magyar.
The committee also chose to maintain the immunity of Italian far-left MEP Ilaria Salis, who was among a group of Antifa members that attacked people on the streets of Budapest in February 2023, leaving some victims half beaten to death. The perpetrators selected their targets solely on the basis of what they described as a ‘right-wing appearance’. Hungarian authorities arrested Salis and placed her in custody, but she was later released after running as a candidate for the European Parliament on behalf of Italy’s far-left Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (AVS). That move was widely seen as a tactic to escape a prison sentence in Hungary. While in custody, Salis repeatedly criticized Hungarian authorities, accusing them of breaching her fundamental rights.
‘It is incomprehensible and outrageous that the @Europarl_EN legitimizes far-left terrorism,’ State Secretary Zoltán Kovács wrote on X. ‘By upholding her immunity, they are not only excusing a criminal but in fact harboring an antifascist terrorist,’ he continued, stressing that ‘we will not forget, and we will not give up.’ ‘Ilaria Salis is a dangerous criminal who belongs in prison,’ Kovács concluded.
The decision to uphold Salis’s immunity comes as US President Donald Trump pushes for designating Antifa as a ‘major terrorist organization’. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomed the initiative last Friday, stating that Hungary should follow the US example in order to halt the spread of far-left terror across Western societies.
Alongside Magyar and Salis, the committee also ruled to preserve the immunity of Hungarian socialist MEP Klára Dobrev in relation to an ongoing defamation case.
The final decision will be made by the EP plenary, which is scheduled to sit in early October.
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