Hungarian Parliament to reimburse former opposition MPs

The Hungarian Parliament has announced the peaceful settlement of legal cases involving former opposition MPs regarding the deduction of their honorariums. Following decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, the Parliament will reimburse several million forints to the affected representatives to avoid further litigation costs.

Péter Jakab is set to receive nearly 10 million forints following a disciplinary fine of approximately 9.6 million forints imposed after a 2021 parliamentary speech. Bence Tordai is also due a reimbursement of over 8.2 million forints, which had been deducted following an incident involving Finance Minister Mihály Varga.

Parliament Speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer stated that the settlement aims to ensure the financial independence of representatives, noting that such large-scale deductions could jeopardize a member's ability to work without external influence. She characterized the previous use of these deductions as an excessive tool for silencing representatives.