A new draft law presented on Friday in Budapest would allow Hungary’s National Electoral Office to revoke the mandates of members of the European Parliament if they fail to comply with financial transparency rules.
A draft law presented on Friday evening by MPs from Hungary’s ruling coalition Fidesz-KDNP party would beef up transparency rules for MEPs and threatens to target opposition leader Péter Magyar, according to Magyar himself and a political commentator.
If approved, the new law would require all Hungarian MEPs to disclose their financial assets in a similar manner to their counterparts in the Hungarian Parliament.
But the new law as drafted also stipulates that MEPs failing to comply with the new transparency disclosures could see their mandates revoked by the National Elections Office (NEO). In such cases the president of the NEO would write to the president of the European Parliament notifying her of the termination of the MEP’s mandate .
Péter Magyar claims the measures are targeted at him
The process appears to be designed with Péter Magyar – who founded the opposition Tisza Party a year ago – in mind, according to Magyar. In a Facebook post over the weekend addressed at Orbán, he wrote: “I hear you’re getting more and more nervous and you’ve given it to your jesters to find a miracle weapon that could really get me out of the way.”
Recent polls suggest Tisza’s and Magyar’s popularity is rising ahead of the contest with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at a general election scheduled to take place next year. According to a poll conducted by Median published in March Tisza is leading Fidesz by 9%.
Political analyst Szabolcs Dull said in a weekly newsletter that the timing and content of the draft law indicate that it is targeted at Péter Magyar.
Dull pointed to the fact that the draft new law provides the revocation mechanism only in respect of MEPs not for national lawmakers. He said that the fact that proceedings for insider trading have already been advanced against Magyar indicates he is the likely target of the law.
Dull told Euronews that he thought the aim of the new law was not to actually revoke the mandate of Magyar or block him from running in next year’s election, but to harm his public image.
“They want to keep on the agenda that there is some mess around Péter Magyar and there is a scandal surrounding how he became rich, his wealth. Fidesz measures the Prime Minister’s suitability scores every week, and they want to build up the narrative that the challenger to the experienced Prime Minister is embroiled in scandal,” according to Dull. Euronews has reached out to the Fidesz party for comment.
Accusations of insider trading
In February, The Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office started an investigation over an alleged stock market transaction by Péter Magyar in 2013. At the time Magyar was a close ally of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party. Hungarian media has reported that Magyar profited to the tune of several million Hungarian Forints through sale of a stake in Opus, a company related to Hungary’s richest man, Lőrinc Mészáros, just hours before Mészáros announced a share buyback campaign, pushing up prices significantly. Magyar has categorically denied the allegations, describing them as totally fake, and telling Hungarian daily HVG that he generally lost money on stock market transactions, and has banking data showing the transaction dates do not match with the allegations.
Legal questions about the new provisions
An MEP has never had his or her mandate revoked by a member state in the history of the European Parliament, according to EU law expert Tamás Lattmann. As a general rule, he said, national law cannot trump EU law, and MEP mandates could not ordinarily be permitted to be terminated in this way.
“Even if the national authority, the NEO decides to withdraw a mandate of an MEP, the European Parliament can just ignore this, as the mandate is not based on the decision of the electoral office,” Lattmann said. He added any such a decision could be challenged by any MEP subject to it, likely resulting a long legal battle culminating in Hungary’s Curia, or eventually at the European Court of Justice.
A European Parliament spokesperson declined to comment on national legislative proposals that remain at the draft stage.
Magyar responds with challenge to Orban
Magyar reacted to the plans over the weekend with a Facebook post addressed to Orban, in which he signalled his intention to comply with the requirements, and challenged the incumbent to follow suit.
“Not only will I declare my own assets publicly, but I’ll also declare those of my relatives. You can follow me! Let’s pull our pants down together, Prime Minister! Is that a deal?” read the post.
ADVERTISEMENTIn the post Magyar also trolled Orbán for alleged luxury possessions such as a private zoo including zebras and landscaping worth 30 million HUF (€75,000 euros) at Orbán’s estate in Hatvanpuszta. A government spokesperson said of the allegations that they were “beneath humour”.
