Prime minister-elect Péter Magyar answers journalists’ questions during a press conference at the HUNGEXPO Congress and Exhibition Center in Budapest, Hungary, on April 20, 2026.
ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP
The Tisza leader has yet to enter office, and is already being accused of “political theatre.”
Hungary’s incoming prime minister is playing directly into the hands of those who say his premiership will be filled with inconsistency. Indeed, less than a week after Péter Magyar invited Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, he expressed his intention to have Israel’s leader arrested if he did turn up.
Magyar is reversing Viktor Orbán’s decision to withdraw Hungary from the International Criminal Court. The outgoing Fidesz PM said last April that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court” but a “political court,” and has been especially critical of its warrant against Netanyahu.
His successor said on Monday that “if someone is a member of the International Criminal Court and a person who is wanted enters our country, then they must be taken into custody”—which raises the question, why did he invite Netanyahu in the first place?
Magyar added: “I don’t need to spell everything out over the phone. I assume that every head of state and government is familiar with these laws.” Although this ignores the fact other ICC member states, including Germany, have said Israel’s leader could visit them without fear of arrest.
This upcoming shift of course explains why Netanyahu expressed his “deep appreciation” for Orbán after the election, calling him “a true friend of Israel, who stood firmly by Israel’s side in the face of unjust international vilification and who supported Israel’s soldiers in our just war of self-defense against brutal terrorists.”
The people of Israel will forever remember this.
The Israeli PM’s wish at the same time that Magyar will continue “strengthening the strong ties between our nations” will, it appears, go unmet.
Israeli journalist Guy Azriel described Magyar’s invitation-cum-arrest threat as an example of “Political Theatre.”
Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy analyst and former aide to Margaret Thatcher, added that the incoming PM’s comments were “insane.”
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
