The opposition’s proposal in the Hungarian parliament to hold a vote on Sweden’s accession to NATO failed to gain a majority of votes and can now only be considered in November. Agnes Vadai, an MP from the Democratic Coalition party, said.
“There will be no vote on Sweden’s NATO membership this week,” she wrote on her social media page.
Vadai explained that a proposal to put the issue on the agenda was rejected by MPs from the ruling FIDES – Hungarian Civic Union party, which has a majority of seats.
Thus, the date of ratification of the agreement on Sweden’s admission to the North Atlantic Alliance in the Hungarian parliament is still uncertain. The government had submitted the relevant bill to parliament back in the summer of 2022, but deputies postponed its consideration indefinitely due to unfriendly statements by Swedish politicians towards Hungary.
The head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gergay Guillas, made it clear in a meeting with reporters on Wednesday that Budapest still has grievances with Stockholm.
“We want to have normal, good relations with Sweden. That is what we are striving for, and if we manage to achieve that, there will be no obstacles to joining,” he said.
Of all NATO countries, only Hungary and Turkey, which has sought tougher measures from the kingdom against Kurdish separatists who have moved there, have so far disapproved of Sweden’s application. On 23 October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted the protocol on Sweden’s admission to NATO to parliament for ratification, but Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that his country’s MPs would make the decision without looking at their Turkish counterparts.
On 27 March, the Hungarian parliament approved Finland’s accession to NATO but postponed consideration of Sweden. Finland and Sweden submitted their applications on 18 May 2022, indicating that they were pushed to such a step by events in Ukraine.
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