The incident occurred after the parliament voted on the amendment of the assembly law to ban Pride.Continue reading
The National Assembly has voted that independent opposition politician Ákos Hadházy and five members of parliament from Momentum will not be allowed to enter the Parliament building from Tuesday. Dávid Bedő, Lajos Lőcsei, and Ákos Hadházy have been banned from 12 sitting days, while Ferenc Gelencsér, Éva Sebők, and Endre Tóth have been banned from six sitting days, following a proposal by House Speaker László Kövér. The MPs will also receive a total of 82 million forints (202,700 euros) in fines, Hirado.hu reported.
On Monday afternoon, the National Assembly voted by a large majority to ban the opposition politicians from parliament and impose fines on them after they protested against the amendment of the law on assembly in the parliament chamber by setting off a smoke bomb on March 18, 2025.
The National Assembly has now decided whether to uphold the penalties imposed on the representatives by House Speaker László Kövér at the end of March.
As a result, for the first time in the history of parliamentary democracy in Hungary, members of the National Assembly will be banned from the Parliament building.
On March 18, with 136 votes in favor and 27 against, the amendment was finally passed, making it possible to ban events such as Budapest Pride, and some opposition MPs began to protest vehemently. Ákos Hadházy, a politician known for his provocative behavior, along with the representatives of the radical left-wing Momentum party, did not take part in the vote. Instead, they lit smoke bombs in the chamber and organized a demonstration in front of the Parliament in the afternoon, which ended with several protesters being arrested. The protests continued in the following weeks with the occupation of bridges in the capital, most recently despite the fact that the police and the Curia (Supreme Court) did not allow the demonstration to take place.
Hadházy faces a fine of 12 million forints (29,670 euros), Dávid Bedő 24 million (59,340 euros), Lajos Lőcsei 14.4 million (35,600 euros), Éva Sebők and Endre Tóth 11.2 million (27,695 euros), and Ferenc Gelencsér 9.6 million (23,740 euros). A total of 82 million forints will be deducted from the MPs’ salaries in the coming months. The punished MPs are expected to be barred from entering the Parliament building until the end of September.
According to the Speaker of the House,
obstructing the National Assembly is one of the most serious disciplinary offenses, as it undermines the functioning of the highest representative body of the people, and by extension, the constitutional functioning of the state.
Kövér believes that by using smoke bombs, the MPs not only violated the rules of procedure, but also endangered the health of those present. For this reason, he is not satisfied with the punishment detailed above and has also filed a criminal complaint. The complaint states that the defendants violated the rules of conduct governing members of parliament, endangered the physical integrity and health of their fellow members of parliament, and significantly disrupted and obstructed the proceedings of the session.
Shortly after the vote, Márton Tompos, president of Momentum, responded to the ban on Facebook. “We are living in historic times. Today, something happened that has never happened in the 35 years of Hungarian democracy: representatives elected by the Hungarian people were banned from parliament by the Fidesz majority,” the party president stated. According to Márton Tompos, they have nothing to fear, so they will not back down from the ban. Finally, he called on everyone to join the demonstration organized by Hadházy at Kossuth Square on May 1 at 3 p.m.
Via Hirado.hu, Featured photo via Facebook/Kocsis Máté
