Béla Kovács (born 25 February 1960) is a Hungarian former

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

between 2010 and 2019. He is a former member of Jobbik, which he left in 2016. He was elected President of the

Alliance of European National Movements The Alliance of European National Movements (AENM) is a European political party that was formed in Budapest on 24 October 2009 by a number of ultranationalist and far-right parties from countries in Europe. AENM's founding members were Jobbik ...

(AENM) on 17 December 2013, replacing

Bruno Gollnisch Bruno Gollnisch (; born 28 January 1950) is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front (France), National Front (FN) History of far-right movements in France, far-right party. He was a member of the Member of the European ...

. The Hungarian government accused Kovács of engaging in espionage against European Union institutions for the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n government. In September 2014, the Hungarian public prosecutor asked the European Parliament to suspend Kovács's MEP immunity so that he could be investigated. The European Parliament lifted the immunity on 14 October 2015. In September 2022 the Curia of Hungary sentenced him in absentia to five years imprisonment for espionage. He lives and teaches in Russia. Béla Kovács's Russian father served in the military and his son has been 'known to the KGB almost from the day he was born'.index.hu
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References

External links

Béla Kovács Bio
on jobbik.hu
jobbik-mep-bela-kovacs-accused-spying-previously-lose-immunity
1960 births Living people Politicians from Budapest Jobbik MEPs MEPs for Hungary 2009–2014 MEPs for Hungary 2014–2019 Russian spies {{Hungary-MEP-stub