Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed that the Hungarian parliament will vote in favor of ratification at its first session in 2023.
Hungary, the only NATO country with Turkey not to have ratified Sweden and Finland’s accession, postponed it to next year on Thursday, November 24. The Hungarian parliament will vote “during the first session” in 2023, declared the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the sidelines of a summit of the Visegrad Group in Kosice (Slovakia), pledged his “support” to the two countries.
Budapest recently pledged to ratify by the end of 2022. Now it will have to wait until February when the Assembly meets for the first time in 2023, unless an extraordinary session is called before then.
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Hungary has asserted a legislative impasse over the array of anti-corruption measures Parliament must vote on, in response to fears from the European Commission blocking billions of euros in funds. Founded 30 years ago in the midst of the post-communist transition, the Visegrad Group (V4) unites Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden submitted a joint bid to join the Atlantic Alliance in May, abandoning decades of military non-alignment. This, which requires unanimous approval by the 30 NATO member states, has been ratified by all but Turkey and Hungary.
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“The Finns and the Swedes are our allies, and just as we can count on our allies, they can also count on us,” said Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, “having no objections” in early November. to their membership.
The opposition has repeatedly called for the issue to be put on the parliamentary agenda, a demand consistently rejected by the ruling party. The Social Democrats denounce “an incomprehensible decision”, while the liberal formation Momentum accuses the government of “blackmail” against Brussels.