The Fidesz-KDNP delegation in the European Parliament has written to all MEPs accusing the Hungarian Government of building an authoritarian regime and of turning prosecutors against its opponents.
The letter was circulated by MEP Kinga Gál after the detention of Balázs Hankó, culture and innovation minister until May 2026 and now a Fidesz member of the Hungarian parliament.
Hankó was taken into custody on the evening of September 28, hours after the National Assembly voted 139-0 to lift his immunity in an investigation into the National Cultural Fund that he chaired as minister. Fidesz and its Christian Democrat allies boycotted the extraordinary sitting.
Prosecutors say grants worth HUF 17.3 billion (€44 million) went outside the fund’s statutory purposes. Miklós Seszták, national development minister between 2014 and 2018, was detained earlier the same day in a separate bribery inquiry.
The delegation told MEPs that the arrests followed what it called a constitutional coup. Retroactive legislation had stopped the leader of the opposition returning as prime minister, removed the head of state three years before the end of his term and pushed several Constitutional Court judges, including the court’s president, out of their posts, it said.
Parliament passed the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law on July 13, ending President Tamás Sulyok’s mandate and barring anyone who has served 12 years from standing again. The same package restored a retirement age of 70 for Constitutional Court judges, forcing out the court’s president, Péter Polt.
The letter accused Prime Minister Péter Magyar of issuing instructions to the police and the prosecution service, and of announcing the case against Hankó on Facebook before it opened. The delegation condemned what it called “the daily abuse of power”.
Magyar rejects such accusations and asked parliament to suspend his own immunity on the same day, over a 2024 incident in a Budapest bar. He has described the prosecution service as a residue of what he calls Viktor Orbán’s mafia.
Tisza won 141 of the 199 seats in the National Assembly on April 12, ending 16 years of Fidesz rule. The prosecution service has had no confirmed head since August 25, and MPs rejected President András Baka’s nominee for the post hours before the two former ministers lost their immunity.
In July the European Parliament declined to debate the constitutional changes, after years of scrutiny of Hungary under Orbán. The European Commission has said it is monitoring the process.
