BUDAPEST: The Hungarian parliament passed a bill on the country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the final vote...
BUDAPEST: The Hungarian parliament passed a bill on the country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the final vote, according to a livestream on the parliament’s website.
Over two-thirds of lawmakers voted in favor of the bill. However, this final vote was preceded by intense debates in parliament in late April. At that time, all of the ruling Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union lawmakers and their Christian Democratic People's Party supporters backed the document, while the opposition liberal democratic parties opposed it.
When presenting the bill to parliament, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that the ICC has become highly politicized in recent years and has been used by various countries to achieve their goals in international conflicts. "Hungary believes that politics and geopolitics have no place in international legal organizations," the top diplomat said.
In early April, the Hungarian government announced its decision to withdraw from the ICC, aligning this decision with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Budapest. In November 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Palestinian territory. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban slammed the decision, calling it "outrageous and shameful."
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