Pál Völner

Dr. Pál Völner (born 30 November 1962) is a Hungarian jurist and politician, a former member of the National Assembly (MP) for Komárom (Komárom-Esztergom County Constituency IV) from 2010 to 2014, and for Esztergom (Komárom-Esztergom County Constituency II) from 2014 to 2022. He served as Secretary of State for Infrastructure in the Ministry of National Development between 2 June 2010 and 5 June 2014. He was a vice-chairman of the parliament's Economic Committee from 2014 to 2015. Völner served as Secretary of State for Justice from 9 October 2015 to 8 December 2021. He earned a degree of law at the Faculty of Law of the Eötvös Loránd University in 1988. he completed a course at the Law Training Institute of the same university in 1990.

Völner was elected a Member of Parliament for Komárom (Komárom-Esztergom County Constituency IV) in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election. He served as Secretary of State for Infrastructure in the Ministry of National Development between 2 June 2010 and 5 June 2014, during the Second Orbán Government. He was elected MP for Esztergom (Komárom-Esztergom County Constituency II) in the 2014 Hungarian parliamentary election. He functioned as vice-chairman of the Economic Committee from June 2014 to October 2015, also presiding its Subcommittee for Transport from November 2014 to October 2015, and was also a member of the Subcommittee on Economic Development and Competitiveness in the same period. He functioned in this capacity in the third and fourth Orbán governments.

Corruption charge The so-called "Schadl–Völner case" began in early 2021, when the National Defense Service (NVSZ) began to eavesdrop on a corrupt official of the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV). In early December 2021, the Attorney General's Office initiated the waiver of Völner's immunity on suspicion of bribery. According to the suspicion – abusing his supervisory, official and administrative powers – Völner regularly accepted millions HUF from , the president of the Hungarian Court Bailiffs Chamber (MBVK). The case has twelve suspects at the time the immunity was initiated.

Völner resigned as Secretary of State for Justice on 8 December 2021. In a press release sent through his lawyer after his suspicion, Völner said he was cooperating with the authorities to investigate. On 14 December 2021, the parliamentary immunity of Pál Völner was waived. He then voluntarily testified before the Central Investigative Prosecutor's Office. According to the statement of the Prosecutor General Péter Polt, Völner's act raises a well-founded suspicion of accepting an official bribery committed in a criminal association, in a business-like and continuous manner, by a senior official otherwise abusing his official position for advantage.