On Monday, the Hungarian parliament ratified Finland’s membership of NATO with 182 votes in favour, six against and 11 abstentions. Sweden still has to wait, for which Budapest blames Swedish politicians and their “lies about Hungary”. According to Orban’s government, he supports both countries joining NATO, but the parliamentary majority for Sweden’s admission is very uncertain, he said.
The head of the right-wing national ruling party Fidesz faction, Mate Kocsis, had previously stated that in the case of Finland, we were dealing with a “special historical friendship and a special alliance”, which means that existing problems can be resolved. As far as Sweden is concerned, this is not the case, Kocsis stressed.
Following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Sweden and neighboring Finland jointly applied for NATO membership. All 30 NATO member states must give the green light for admission. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is urging Sweden to take tougher action against Kurdish activists, whom Ankara considers “terrorists” because Turkey, like Hungary, wants to ratify Finland’s membership.