Tuesday 23 September the “Juri” Commission of the European Parliament votes, behind closed doors, on the request for revocation of immunity for Ilaria Salis. The MEP of the Green and Left (AVS) alliance is accused by Hungary of having attacked two Hungarian neo -Nazis on the occasion of the day of honor, a gathering that commemorates the failed attempt by the military of the third Reich and the Hungarian army, ally of Adolf Hitler, to break the siege of the red army in Budapest in 1945.
The vote on the Salis case
The vote in the legal commission is expected late in the morning and the outcome is uncertain, because Salis is accused of alleged crimes committed before the start of his mandate as a MEP. The Monzese teacher, militant of the far left, was arrested in Hungary, held for more than a year in degrading conditions, improved only when his case ended up in the media, and accompanied in the classroom with the chains on the feet and a leash around the neck. Images that, broadcast by Italian TV, raised a widespread indignation, in Italy and beyond. Then it was released by the Hungarians only when it was elected MEP, in the ranks of AVS.
The immunity for its new European -placing status was taken, the trial has been suspended. Almost at the same time, however, the head of Cabinet of the Hungarian government, Gargely Gulyás, announced that the executive of Orbán would have asked the European Parliament for the revocation of immunity. So it happened. Now it is up to the EU to decide.
What can happen
The request for the revocation of immunity has triggered a procedure that came at the crucial moment. On 23 September in Brussels the legal affairs commission must discuss the case and decide whether to revoke immunity. He must issue a motivated opinion, which will then be voted by the European Parliament. The majority required is the simple one, 50%+1, and Salis cannot vote for conflict of interest. In any case, even if the immunity is granted, the trial against Salis will continue at the end of the mandate. The speaker on his case, the popular Spanish Adrian Vazquez Lazara, is a former Renew (a liberal political group at the European Parliament), and would be, according to rumors never denied, not inclined to save Salis, because it could constitute a precedent useful for Catalan independence.
The commission vote gives an indication to the classroom, which is however sovereign. The games will be done in the first plenary of October and there will be seen if the Parliament will choose to return to Hungary a eurodeputata already exhibited, when it was still a simple town, in a courtroom in strains and leash, or if it manages to avoid it. The procedure plays in favor of an agreement, tacit, to “save” salis: normally on immunity the classroom votes for raise of hand, without nominal appeal, which already makes it difficult to identify who has voted against and who in favor (it would be necessary to climb the grandstand and photograph the moment in which the vote takes place).
But there is always the possibility of a secret vote: to ask for it, a fifth of the MEPs are needed and a political group, easily achievable theory conditions, numbers in hand. In that case, the MEPs, on the left and in the center but also on the right, could vote according to consciousness, without fear of any reprimands from their party or political group. It will be seen next month if the European Parliament will decide to put the word “end” to the Salis case or if it chooses to respect it in Hungary, for a process that could drag on for months, with relative media coverage.
Salis: “serious and irrational to remove immunity”
“It would be extremely serious and irrational if the Commission and the European Parliament bend to the Vendicative drives of Orbán and of a illiberal and anti-Europeanist government which, as Parliament himself has repeatedly certified, has gradually dismantled the rule of law and democratic guarantees in Hungary”, wrote the MEP on social networks in recent days.
And he added: “The revocation of my immunity would not mean undergoing justice at all, but delivering me to an orchestrated process orchestrated by the political power of an autocratic country with increasingly fascist and oppressive features, where a political opposite is evidently denied any possibility of just trial. At the same time, a serious and alarming defeat for European democracy would be a violation of the fundamental rights.”
“The parliamentary immunity of Ilaria Salis should not be revoked”
“The parliamentary immunity of Ilaria Salis should not be revoked. The why it is under everyone’s eyes: it is not a question of delivering it to justice, but of condemning it to be politically and humanly by the Orbán regime – writes the secretary of most Europe Riccardo Magi on social networks -. The fact that the government spokesman has posted the coordinates of the prison shows that Hungary does not want to be justice. And Lega threaten to vote in favor of the revocation in the European Championship session shows how little guarantees are “.
47.8690 ° n 18.8699 ° and https://t.co/ljnxgrfq2o
– Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) September 18, 2025
Pina Picierno’s comment
“The Juri Commission of the European Parliament will be called to express itself on the revocation of the parliamentary immunity of Ilaria Salis – says Pina Picierno (Pd), vice president of the European Parliament -. The accusations that moves Hungary – slight injuries and belonging to an anti -fascist terrorist organization, a designation that occurred only after the alleged facts to aggravate its position – are the reflection of a justice that has not responded for a while to European standards “.
