Benjamin Netanyahu is about to set foot in the European Union on Wednesday, April 2, for the first time since being targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Unsurprisingly, it is Viktor Orban's Hungary that will open its doors to the Israeli prime minister – he is expected to spend nearly six days in Budapest without fear of being arrested.

After the Hague Court issued its arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity on November 21, 2024, the nationalist Hungarian leader quickly announced that his country would not comply. Even though Hungary ratified the ICC treaty in 2001 during Orban's first term, he extended an invitation to his Israeli counterpart on November 22, assuring him that his country "would not follow the terms" of a warrant deemed "cynical."

The two leaders, who have become figures of the global illiberal wave, are expected to display their ideological closeness at a press conference scheduled for Thursday. The Israeli prime minister has long absolved Orban for his anti-Semitic tirades against the Hungarian-American Jewish billionaire George Soros. Their rapprochement, initially based on their common fight against the rule of law, has accelerated recently due to the Israeli war in Gaza, which the Hungarian government has unconditionally supported.

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