Hungary is back inside the International Criminal Court in The Hague - and by a clear parliamentary vote. 133 MPs voted to stop the exit process started by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban in 2025, against 37 who voted in favour of leaving, and 5 abstaining. Prime Minister Peter Magyar submitted the motion to halt the withdrawal, and there is not much room for interpretation here - it is a strategic strike against everything Orban has built over the last 15 years.

Orban kicked off the process with the argument that the court had "gone from an impartial institution to a political body" - in other words, that the court had been issuing arrest warrants that ran against his foreign policy. Specifically: the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which Orban refused to execute when Netanyahu visited Budapest. That was when Orban moved to discredit the court and formally started the exit process.

Now, with Magyar in power, the priorities are different. The goal: normalising relations with Brussels and with international legal institutions. Not just for statements - but for concrete budget packages, funds and negotiating leverage that Hungary lost under Orban. Returning to The Hague is symbolically the first step, but it is far more than a symbol.

For the Balkans, this is a significant signal. Several countries in the region looked at Hungary as a model for relations with The Hague in their own situations ("we ignore the court when it bothers us, we ask for its support in our cases"). That model is now dissolving. Which means: the new frame for the region will be "cooperation by the rules" - not "selective compliance". Is everyone ready for that?