While barely covered in the international press, the Hungarian domestic press has been focused on an incident where Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar allegedly sexually harassed young girls in a Budapest nightclub and then threw a man’s phone into the Danube River. Although a darling of the left, Magyar is facing real problems from the incident, which occurred shortly after his Tisza Party scored a surprise 31 percent of the vote in the European elections.
Prosecutors are looking to press charges over the incident, which was covered in some detail by Remix News, but Magyar has immunity through his role as an MEP. One video showed him being thrown out of the club by security guards, and another showed him drunkenly stumbling through the streets of Budapest afterward. This week, Magyar was asked by an ATV reporter if he planned to drop his immunity.
“I have not been approached by anyone, neither the prosecutor’s office nor the police. The propaganda media are jumping on this, but if I were the propaganda media, I would rather jump on the conditions in the MÁV, the conditions in the schools,” said the chairman of the Tisza Party during the television program. When the topic was raised, Péter Magyar was visibly uncomfortable and tried to deflect the discussion.
“If they contact me and tell me what the procedure is and what the evidence is, I will decide. If it is a politically motivated procedure, which is the case with all procedures against me at the moment, then obviously not. If they have evidence, which is currently being lied about by the propaganda media, then I will consider that, but otherwise, I cannot resign, it is the European Parliament that will decide,” said Magyar.
Magyar himself said the incident was a “setup” by the government; however, even left-wing Hungarian news outlets are questioning his story.
Despite interest in the story, it is not even clear if there is an ongoing investigation, with the Budapest Prosecutor’s Office declining to state whether one exists.
