Swedish-Finnish NATO membership to be put before Hungarian Parliament next week

The caucus of Hungary’s governing Fidesz-KDNP coalition has been holding a meeting in the resort town of Balatonfüred for the last two days. During one of the breaks, Fidesz faction leader Máté Kocsis and KDNP faction leader István Simicskó briefed the press on some of the topics discussed.

Next week, the issue of the Swedish-Finnish NATO membership will be put before Parliament. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would like the proposal to be adopted, but the parliamentary group is divided on the issue, and a serious debate emerged about it at their Balatonfüred meeting. Therefore, a parliamentary delegation will be sent to the two countries to settle the problematic issues, Fidesz faction leader Máté Kocsis said at a press conference held during a break in the Fidesz-KDNP faction meeting in Balatonfüred.

Kocsis explained that there are opinions within the faction according to which the countries moving towards NATO membership could trigger an escalation. Some criticised the fact that politicians from Sweden and Finland have repeatedly and often grossly insulted Hungary in recent years and are now asking for favours. "We have asked the President of the National Assembly to send a delegation to the two countries with the purpose of gathering information on these matters" Kocsis said, adding that this in no way means the postponement of the decision. The proposal will be voted on by Parliament in accordance with the normal procedure, and PM Orbán asked government MPs to support it.

"We don't keep such statistics, but there was a debate," the Fidesz leader said later when asked how many in his group supported and how many opposed Sweden and Finland joining NATO. He said that the parliamentary group had not yet made any decision, only the prime minister had asked for their support. Kocsis sees only a very small chance that they will not vote for accession.

The two countries had requested accession to NATO last year, shortly after Russia’s aggression on Ukraine began. The majority of the 30 member states of the military alliance ratified their membership applications in July or August, leaving only Hungary and Turkey.

The Hungarian prime minister spoke about Hungary supporting the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO in November, but the final decision has been pending for quite a while – we wrote about this in more detail in this article.