Peter Magyar, who is designated to replace Viktor Orbán as the prime minister of Hungary, confirmed at a news conference on Monday that he’d invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Hungary, but then added that Netanyahu might be arrested on arrival due to the International Criminal Court warrant against him.
Magyar, whose Tisza Party beat Orbán’s Fidesz in the April 12 general elections, made the remarks during a press conference in which he presented the party’s appointees to cabinet ministers.
A reporter asked Magyar about an Israeli Prime Minister’s Office statement from April 15, which said that Netanyahu and Magyar had spoken on the telephone and that Magyar invited Netanyahu to attend the 70th commemoration of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which was a nationwide revolt against Soviet-imposed policies.
Magyar confirmed this, and added he’d invited all the foreign leaders with whom he’d spoken to attend, the Magyar Nemzet newspaper reported. He was also asked about the Orbán government’s plan to take Hungary out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu in 2024 on disputed war crimes allegations in Gaza.
Magyar, a 45-year-old former European Parliament lawmaker with limited experience in government, reiterated his intention to prevent the move. Asked whether this would mean that Netanyahu would be arrested if he landed in Hungary, Magyar replied: “If a country is a member of the ICC and a person wanted by the court arrives on its territory, they will be detained.” Leaders of several E.U. countries that are member states of the ICC, including Belgium, have said they would ignore the arrest warrant.
The apparent contradiction in Magyar’s answers led to “some confusion” among many Hungarian Jews and others following Hungary’s relationship with Israel, László Bernát Veszprémy, a historian who has written extensively about Hungarian Jewry and Hungarian politics, told JNS.
Under Orbán, a critic of many E.U. policies, including confrontational steps on Israel, Hungary has thwarted various initiatives that required a consensus to punish or isolate the Jewish state. Magyar has promised to improve relations with the bloc.
