The proceedings against Ilaria Salis in Hungary during the mandate of the MEP elected with the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra may not be a closed chapter. “I have received the request from the competent authorities in Hungary for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Ilaria Salis. The request has been forwarded to the Legal Affairs Committee”, announced the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, before the plenary votes in Strasbourg . A move, that of the country governed by Viktor Orban, accompanied by fiery declarations. “The fact that you behave as if you were some kind of victim is not only disconcerting, but also absolutely disgusting – writes Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs on political opinions’ you were arrested and tried for incidents of armed aggression against innocent Hungarian citizens! This whole farce is a joke, you are not a democrat and you are not a martyr. You are a common criminal.” Salis was detained in Budapest on charges of having participated in the beating of members of the Hungarian far right.
Nicola Fratoianni and Angeli Bonelli, at the helm of Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, declare that “Now it is up to the European Parliament to reiterate that the protection of rights and democracy cannot be questioned, not even by Orban. The request for the revocation of Ilaria Salis’s immunity from the Hungarian authorities has reached the European Parliament. We reiterate our full solidarity with Ilaria and hope that the European Parliament rejects this request, aware of the fact that the conditions for a fair and equitable trial do not exist in Hungary”, write the two representatives of the left claiming that the Hungarian government has already written Salis’ guilty verdict.
But what happens now? The Hungarian authorities have presented the request to the European Parliament for the lifting of the immunity of the MEP, who had already spent fifteen months in precautionary detention in Hungary. Thus begins the process by which Parliament will decide on the request. The first step is in the legal commission (Juri). The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament “does not examine the guilt or otherwise of the Member and the relevance of the judicial proceedings. It limits itself to establishing whether the need to safeguard the independence of Parliament results in an obstacle to the judicial proceedings. Just as it does not examine the merits of national legal and judicial systems. Alleged shortcomings of national judicial systems cannot be used to justify a decision not to waive or defend the immunity of a Member – which always takes place behind closed doors – includes an initial presentation by the rapporteur in the committee, a possible hearing of the member concerned, an exchange of opinions and a vote. The hearings are optional: a member can always waive the right to be heard. At the end of the exchange, they proceed to the vote and the request is placed on the agenda of the next plenary for a vote in the Chamber,” reads the Brussels documents. In short, the European Parliament will be able to adopt or reject the Hungarian request with a simple majority vote.
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