News24 | Hungary does dramatic U-turn under new PM Peter Magyar, cancels ICC exit plans
Hungary’s Prime Minister, Peter Magyar speaks to the media during a press conference at the Parkowa Complex in Warsaw, Poland.
Omar Marques/Getty Images
Lawmakers voted to cancel Hungary’s exit from the International Criminal Court.Pro-EU Prime Minister Peter Magyar vowed he would reverse the year-long exit process.China, Israel, Russia and the US are among the nations that do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC.Hungarian lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to cancel the European country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court set in motion by former nationalist premier Viktor Orban in 2025.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 2 June.The 199-member parliament voted 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 the 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.READ | Hungary’s Prime Minister Peter Magyar on a mission in Poland to repair EU tiesOrban announced Hungary’s withdrawal last year, decrying the tribunal as a “political court”, while hosting his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.In 2024, ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including starvation as a method of warfare, in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, prompting US sanctions against top judges and prosecutors.Magyar had previously indicated that Hungary would execute ICC warrants against anyone, even Netanyahu, despite inviting him to Budapest for later this year.Only Burundi and the Philippines have withdrawn from the ICC.Set up in 2002 and backed by 125 member states, the Hague-based tribunal seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.Since it was founded, the ICC has opened more than 30 cases for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and offences against the administration of justice.But it has been struggling against a lack of recognition and enforcement power.China, Israel, Russia and the US are among the nations that do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, hampering its ability to investigate their nationals.
