There are not many countries that the Israeli Prime Minister can visit without risking any arrest. This makes the treatment of the red carpet that Benjamin Netanyahu received in Hungary – the only proud “illiberal democracy” in Europe – all the more remarkable.
Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, invited Mr. Netanyahu just after the International Criminal Court published an arrest warrant last November for the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. And in the hours following the arrival of the Israeli Prime Minister in Hungary last week, Orban announced the withdrawal of his court from the court.
There are several things here, according to analysts, which bind the affinities of Mr. Orban, Mr. Netanyahu and President Trump.
Connection: The International Criminal Court is the most ambitious and idealistic version – although deeply imperfect – of a global judicial system to enforce human rights. Most liberals love it. Mr. Orban, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump hate him.
Signaling: Mr. Orban tells the world that Hungary does what it wants: it can be a member of the European Union, but it is not limited by it. He said to China and Russia that Hungary is open to business. And he tells his voters at home that it is Hungary first.
Test the limits: At a time when global institutions collapse and that a new order has not yet emerged, no one knows what is authorized and what is prohibited.
Leaders against the judiciary
Hungary is not the first country to make exceptions for Israel. The United States and Germany have done so for a long time. Friedrich Merz, the new German Chancellor, also excluded the arrest of Mr. Netanyahu, even though Germany remains a committed member of the International Criminal Court.
Hungary is also not the first signator of the Treaty of Rome which established the court to ignore it. When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia went to Mongolia last year, he took no action on a mandate of CPI against him.
But Mr. Orban’s challenge with regard to the court also concerns something else: a desire to mark independent judges in the country and abroad.
“Quite simply, some international institutions have become political organizations,” he told a Hungarian radio program on Friday. “Unfortunately, the International Criminal Court is one of them. It is a political court.”
The power struggles between leaders and judges – whether international or national – have become a decisive political theme in many countries, notably Hungary, Israel, Brazil and the United States.
Mr. Orban, in power since 2010, is considered by the conservatives of the world as a pioneer in the affirmation of power over the judiciary. He wrapped Hungary Constitutional court With loyalist judges and forced others to resign. He fought against the courts of the European Union and castigated their “exceeding” when they take Hungary to the task to violate the EU rules.
Mr. Netanyahu, who denounced the accusations of corruption and fraud against him in Israel as an effort to derail the will of the voters, put pressure for his own controversial judicial overhaul. He and his allies argued that the judiciary has granted increased authority and is not representative of the diversity of Israeli society.
Trump, who was found guilty of 34 charges before being re -elected last year, said the many legal affairs against him were politically motivated. In recent weeks, his administration has challenged several judicial orders, which could possibly lead to a constitutional crisis. And in February, he signed a decree performing sanctions against the CPI officials in response the arrest warrant against Mr. Netanyahu.
The three leaders – Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Orban and Mr. Trump – spoke on the phone of the court during the visit of the Israeli leader in Hungary. Netanyahu visited the White House on Monday, and his office said that the ICC would again be on the agenda.
“It takes a lawless autocrat like Orban to welcome rather than arresting a war criminal accused like Netanyahu,” said Kenneth Roth, guest professor at Princeton and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. The imposition of sanctions by Mr. Trump against the ICC staff, he said, “is an article with Orban.”
Hungary first
As Orban is strategically link, it also strategically signals to the allies, investors and voters that Hungary will not be limited by international rules and standards. It is a form of identity construction, says an eminent thinker about democracy.
“Orban plays special relationships – special relations with Russia, special relations with Trump, special relations with the Chinese,” said Ivan Krastev, president of the Liberal strategies center. “He tries to create a Hungarian story being the member of the European Union who can do what they want.”
“So, if someone wants to invest in a country in the EU, go with Hungary,” said Krastev. “Because they can do what they want. They can oppose his veto to the sanctions. They can leave the International Criminal Court. They are in a way the only free spirit in the EU“”
Orban qualified his colleagues European leaders as “heat” because of their support for Ukraine. He openly lobby to restore relations with Russia after the war. The welcome of the Israeli Prime Minister in contempt of the International Court was another opportunity for him to present the counter-contract sovereignty of Hungary.
Mr. Krastev considers Mr. Netanyahu’s visit as a previous one – and perhaps the preparation – for an even more controversial invitation for someone like Mr. Putin at the bottom of the line.
Mr. Orban has established his great strategy for Hungary in A wide and detailed speech Last July, in which he described his vision of a new world order emerging. As he sees, Western liberalism has lost and nationalism is back. Over the next decades, or perhaps centuries, the dominant center in the world will be in Asia, he predicted.
For a small economy like Hungary, it means ignoring all the Bruxelles or Washington walking orders to isolate Moscow or Beijing.
“We will not get involved in the war against the Eastern,” he said. “We will not participate in the training of a technological block opposed to the East, and we will not join the formation of a commercial block opposing the East.”
The senior Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, during a visit to Hungary last year, promised to invest in the country and open opportunities to Hungarian companies to invest in China.
“We have received an offer from China,” said Orban. “We will not get a better one.”
Trump’s World Order
The provocative reception of Mr. Orban of Mr. Netanyahu highlighted a way in which the world has changed since Mr. Trump came to power: by throwing the world book on longtime alliances and commercial rules, the American president gave the others to also break the rules.
They now test how far they can go.
“No one knows what is authorized and what is prohibited,” said Krastev. “They test the limits.”
But Trump’s ideological allies also know the unpredictability of the Trump administration, whose policies, which will not necessarily be favorable to their country. Israel and Hungary – a large production site for the German automotive industry – are among the main exporting countries that have been struck by important American rates.
It is the intrinsic paradox of “America First” for leaders like Mr. Orban and Mr. Netanyahu: it is one thing to make a common cause with an ally that shares your nationalist program. This is another when “America First” policies put all other countries last.
