Fidesz parliamentary group now supports Swedish NATO membership

Shortly after the Swedish Prime Minister announced his visit to Budapest, whilst stating that he felt there was a strong will on the Hungarian side to vote in favour of Swedish accession to NATO, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis published a letter on Facebook addressed to László Kövér, the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, asking him to put the issue of Swedish accession to NATO on the agenda for 26 February.

The initiative is not the only important element in the letter, but the way it ends as well, since Kocsis writes that the Fidesz parliamentary group wishes to support the final vote.

It has been more than a year and a half since the Hungarian Parliament failed to decide on Sweden's accession to NATO. Hungary is now the last Member State which still hasn't ratified the Scandinavian country's accession. The government submitted the proposal to Parliament in July 2022, but Speaker László Kövér did not put the final vote on the agenda. The official reason given for the postponement was that there was a dispute within the Fidesz parliamentary group. Then the group's position was to wait for the Swedish prime minister's visit to Budapest.

The issue of Swedish membership in NATO may also be affected by the recent resignation of President Katalin Novák, as the Speaker of Parliament, László Kövér will temporarily take over the presidency from her. If he wishes, he may temporarily delay Sweden's accession to NATO – because even if Parliament votes in favour of it, he, as interim President, has to sign it before it can enter into force, and if he disagrees with it, he can still send it back to Parliament for further consideration before signing.