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Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Hungary lawmakers vote to stop exit from ICC initiated by Orban in gesture to Netanyahu
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Hungarian lawmakers vote overwhelmingly to cancel the European country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court set in motion by former nationalist premier Viktor Orban last year.
Pro-EU conservative Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who won a landslide electoral victory in April, vowed he would reverse the year-long exit process before it takes effect on June 2.
The 199-member parliament votes 133 for, 37 against with five abstentions to formally repeal a law on exiting the ICC, just ahead of the deadline.
Magyar submitted the bill on Monday and rushed it through legislature in a fast-track procedure.
It is up to President Tamas Sulyok, an Orban-ally, to sign the legislation into law.
The ICC’s legislative body hailed an “important decision” after the government announced last Friday it would discontinue the process of withdrawal.
Orban pulled Hungary out of the court last year after it issued an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes, arguing that it had become a “political court.” He announced the move as he welcomed the Israeli prime minister for a visit to Budapest, defying Hungary’s legal obligation to arrest him as a party to the ICC.
Magyar had previously indicated that Hungary would execute ICC warrants against anyone, even Netanyahu, despite inviting him to Budapest alongside other world leaders for a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising.
The Times of Israel Community.