Hungary’s Prosecutor General has resigned under mounting pressure from Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who has been working to remove key officials appointed during Viktor Orbán’s years in power.
In his statement, Gábor Bálint Nagy said he was stepping down to protect the integrity and independence of the prosecutor’s office, and condemned what he described as the political pressure being placed on it. “The prosecution service must not become an instrument in the struggles of political actors, nor can it be a stage for day-to-day political interests or power games,” he said, adding that he no longer wished to be part of a conflict “built on false premises and serving political ends.”
Magyar welcomed the departure, declaring that the country had “freed itself from another Orbán puppet.”
Since his landslide election win in April, Magyar has pushed for the removal of senior figures appointed under Orbán. Over the weekend, President Tamás Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment ending his own mandate.
A Cross-Border Cash Case in the Background
Nagy had also drawn criticism from lawyers representing a group of Ukrainian cash couriers, who accused him of acting on political instructions.
In early March, two vans carrying large amounts of cash and gold bound for the headquarters of Oschadbank in Kyiv left Vienna before being stopped near Budapest. The crew were detained, questioned and expelled from Hungary, while the cash and gold were seized.
Lóránt Horváth, the lawyer representing Oschadbank and the seven detained Ukrainians, told Euronews that those behind the operation should themselves have faced prosecution. “The chief prosecutor supervising and directing this investigation was appointed by the previous government, so it is also possible that he is providing political support, or a safety net, to his former bosses in some way,” he said.
The Prosecutor’s Office has denied any political motive behind the operation. Nagy had led the office since last year.v
