Hungarian prime minister-elect Péter Magyar has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The two spoke on Wednesday, 15 April, according to a social media post by Israeli Ambassador Maya Kadosh; Netanyahu accepted the invitation and invited Magyar to a G2G meeting in Jerusalem.
Ambassador Kadosh said that the two leaders held a ‘warm introductory call’, adding that Netanyahu expressed his confidence that the close relations shared with outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would continue during the term of the incoming Tisza government. ‘The two leaders agreed that their respective foreign ministers would meet soon to discuss the continuation of the close ties between Israel and Hungary,’ Kadosh concluded.
Tisza Party, led by former Fidesz insider Péter Magyar, has won a landslide in Hungary’s high-stakes election on Sunday, ending the 16-year rule of Orbán and Fidesz–KDNP. During Orbán’s consecutive tenures, ties between Israel and Hungary grew deeper in many areas of cooperation, including technology, defence, innovation, space technology and trade. Netanyahu could count on Orbán to veto planned EU sanctions on Israel after the war in Gaza escalated, as well as to use his veto power to block or delay conclusions condemning the Jewish state.
Hungary has also become one of the safest countries for the Jewish community in Europe after 7 October 2023, with the Orbán government prohibiting pro-Palestinian rallies which rocked Western Europe at the time. Netanyahu himself visited Budapest back in April 2025, after Orbán announced that the country is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has an international arrest warrant on the Israeli prime minister for alleged crimes against humanity related to Gaza. The move was praised by US President Donald Trump, who imposed sanctions on the court and its prosecutors over the warrant.
That is where the story becomes interesting. On Monday, during his first international press conference after the election, Magyar said that Hungary would rejoin the ICC under his leadership, adding that it is the ‘interest of the international community and Hungary for us to be there’. However, Magyar continued, the initial withdrawal is a ‘process we cannot stop’, making the move only feasible if the country first leaves and then relaunches the accession process to the ICC. If that were the case, Netanyahu’s visit on 23 October would be a ‘safe trip’ in the sense that no international obligation would bind Hungary to arrest the prime minister.
However, Magyar’s claim about the withdrawal process is misleading at best. While Orbán announced the withdrawal in April, the formal notification—and thus the start of the withdrawal procedure—took place in June 2025. That means, under Article 127 of the Rome Statute, the country’s withdrawal will officially take effect on 2 June—a little less than one month after the anticipated inauguration of Magyar’s government.
The Rome Statute precisely states that until one year after the formal notification, a country remains a full State Party with all rights and obligations, and the withdrawal process can be simply revoked during this period. There are already precedents for similar decisions: Gambia and South Africa both cancelled their withdrawals before they took effect and remained members without interruption.
That effectively means that, if it wants to, the Magyar government could simply revoke the process and remain a member of the ICC, therefore committed to the obligation to execute the warrant—and arrest Netanyahu on 23 October.
In scenario two, if the government does not act until the withdrawal comes into effect on 2 June, the accession process can be relaunched immediately. It is typically around a 60-day procedure after the formal initiation of the process. If launched immediately after 2 June, it could very well take effect before Netanyahu’s planned visit, resulting in the same obligation to arrest him by Hungarian authorities.
There is a third possible scenario, which would be very much like taking a page out of Viktor Orbán’s playbook: launching the reaccession process sometime around August, making it possible for the Israeli prime minister to visit Budapest, while also reaping recognition and signalling commitment towards the European Union and the ICC.
‘There is a third possible scenario, which would be very much like taking a page out of Viktor Orbán’s playbook’
The EU has been one of the ICC’s strongest global supporters politically, financially and diplomatically. Backing the ICC has been part of the EU’s foreign policy position since 2001, while Brussels sees the Hague court as central to human rights, the rule of law and accountability for serious crimes.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has stressed many times that the ICC is essential in the ‘fight against global impunity’ at the time when the court issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. Both the Commission and the European Parliament, as well as some member states, criticized Orbán’s decision to withdraw from the ICC, calling it the ‘betrayal of European values’.
Now, Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party campaigned on a highly pro-EU platform with a special focus on rule-of-law concerns raised against Hungary. One of Magyar’s key promises is to bring home the currently frozen EU funds, which have been blocked since December 2022 under the so-called rule-of-law mechanism.
Negotiations between the incoming government and the Commission are already ongoing, and Magyar has to act quickly to implement at least parts of the 27 conditions laid out by Brussels, including adjustments in migration policy, NGO legislation, and addressing EU concerns over the freedom of the judiciary, media and academia in Hungary. The deadline to prevent part of the funding from being lost completely is 31 August.
Whether the government decides to revoke the exit process, relaunch accession, or host Netanyahu would send different signals to Brussels about the Tisza Party’s commitment to the rule of law. It is important to note that other member states, such as Poland—a key ally of the incoming government—Germany and Italy, have signalled that they would not comply with the ICC arrest warrant if Netanyahu decides to visit them. However, they are far from under the same level of attention that Hungary’s new leadership faces, especially on rule-of-law issues.
If choosing scenario 1 or 2, Magyar clearly signals commitment to Brussels, increasing the likelihood of bringing home at least part of the funding, while making it impossible for Netanyahu to visit Hungary—potentially straining close Hungarian–Israeli relations, unless an opt-out is secured, of course. If Magyar chooses scenario three, he could very quickly end up in the same category in the eyes of Brussels as Viktor Orbán did: a pariah going against the EU establishment. That could, however, hurt his chances of fulfilling one of his most important campaign promises.
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