With a law of the Orban government, leaving the International Criminal Court is now officially becoming officially. Hungary accuses the court of acting politically – and once again faces the uniform attitude of the EU.
The Hungarian Parliament has approved the exit of the EU country from the International Criminal Court (ICC). For this step, 134 MPs voted, 37 voted against it, seven abstained from the voice, as was said on the website of the parliament.
The Criminal Court is a “politically motivated legal institution”, says the law that the government parties have decided with their two-thirds majority in parliament. It was clear that Hungary has no place in “such an organization”.
Exit at Netanyahu visit announced
The Hungarian government had already announced the resignation from the World Court at the beginning of April. At that time, Prime Minister Viktor Orban received the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After the statutes of the Court of Justice, Hungary should have arrested Netanyahu because there is an arrest warrant against him due to suspected war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Before the visit, Orban had made it clear that Hungary would ignore the arrest warrant. “This dish has been degraded into a means of politics,” Orban claimed in the presence of his visitor Netanyahu. The Orban government expressly gave the arrest warrants against the Israeli prime minister and his ex-defense minister Joav Galant as the reason for exit.
Relaxed relationship to the EU
The Hungarian exit from the ICC is expected to be effective in one year. The step is likely to continue to burden the already tense relationship with the EU, because it proves a departure from the previously uniform attitude to the international judiciary. All other 26 EU countries belong to the ISTGH contracting states.
