Hungary's future Prime Minister Péter Magyar has found himself at the centre of a diplomatic paradox that has hit the world media. Shortly after his Tisza party's historic victory in the April 12, 2026 parliamentary elections, Magyar telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and invited him to attend the 70th anniversary of the 1956 anti-communist uprising in October. Netanyahu accepted the invitation in a cordial spirit and expressed confidence that the warm relations established with Viktor Orbán would continue under Magyar's government. The two agreed to meet soon as foreign ministers. But about a day later, the situation became radically more complicated. At a press conference, Magyar answered a direct question from a journalist: if Netanyahu comes to Hungary, he must be detained.

„If we are a member of the ICC and a person with an arrest warrant enters our territory, he must be detained,“ he stated unequivocally. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 on suspicion of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

The whole case reveals the complexity of the situation Hungary has found itself in after 16 years of Orbán's rule. In fact, in response to the issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Orbán announced Hungary's withdrawal from the ICC in April 2025 - the Hungarian parliament confirmed this in May 2025. Magyar has now announced that he intends to reverse this move. According to him, the decision to leave the ICC will only come into force on 2 June 2026, and the new Tisza Party government intends to halt the process and maintain Hungary as a signatory state.

If Magyar succeeds in keeping Hungary in the ICC, he will be in direct conflict: either he fulfils his invitation commitment and welcomes Netanyahu, thus breaking an international legal obligation, or he detains him when he enters Hungarian territory - and thus breaks relations with Israel at the very beginning of his premiership. So far, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has only confirmed that the telephone conversation was conducted in a friendly tone, and has not made any explicit comment on Magyar's announcement.

The symbolism of the case goes beyond bilateral relations. Orbán has repeatedly ignored ICC commitments - not only during Netanyahu's visit to Budapest in April 2025, but also by refusing to cooperate in the case of the arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. Magyar, on the other hand, signals Hungary's return to respect for international law and commitments to European institutions. This position represents one of the sharpest foreign policy divisions between the new and outgoing governments.

Whether Netanyahu will actually come to Budapest for the October celebrations, and what would happen afterwards, will be one of the key diplomatic plots of the autumn of 2026.

gnews.cz - GH