Governing majority votes against Hungary ratifying the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO on Tuesday

The governing parties' two-third majority voted against the motion submitted by opposition party MSZP that would have set Tuesday 4 October as the date for the parliamentary vote on the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden, according to a social media post by Bertalan Tóth, who had proposed the motion. Apart from Hungary, Turkey is the only NATO member that has not yet ratified the two countries' accession to the military alliance.

The government submitted Finland and Sweden's NATO membership applications to parliament in July, but House Speaker László Kövér did not put them on the agenda until now. The Parliament's press department told Telex earlier that the vote on the two countries' NATO membership is on the Parliament's autumn agenda, but did not say when exactly it would take place.

It had been announced prior to the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June that all member states had agreed to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. However, for the process to be finalised, it is not enough for the leaders of the member countries to give verbal consent, but the parliaments of the countries also have to ratify the laws to this effect. This has now been done by all except Turkey, which is already opposed to the accession, and Hungary, which has been waiting for an unknown reason.