Hungary’s parliament ratifies Sweden’s NATO bid, clearing the final obstacle to membership(Photo:Orban Szillard Koszticsak, Associaterd Press.)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s parliament voted Monday to ratify Sweden’s bid to join NATO, ending more than 18 months of delays that frustrated the alliance as it sought to expand in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. It is sixtyeight years since Russia invaded Huangary and Budapest.
The vote, which passed with 188 votes for and six against, was the culmination of months of wrangling by Hungary’s allies to convince its nationalist government to lift its block on Sweden’s membership. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán submitted the protocols for approving Sweden’s entry into NATO in July 2022, but the matter stalled in parliament over opposition by governing party lawmakers.
Hungary’s decision paved the way for the second expansion of NATO’s ranks in a year after both Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance in May 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — an assault that was purportedly intended to prevent further NATO expansion.
Unanimous support among NATO members is required to admit new countries, and Hungary was the last of the alliance’s 31 members to give its backing since Turkey ratified the request last month.
“It’s not right for (Sweden and Finland) to ask us to take them on board while they’re spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here,” Orban said in a radio interview last month. “Can anyone want to be our ally in a military system while they’re shamelessly spreading lies about Hungary?”
While the Hungarian delegation later signaled it was supportive of the NATO accession bids, Hungary’s parliament this month postponed a ratification vote twice in two weeks, and has not given a firm date on when the vote might take place.
Though Orban and his government may hope to win concessions from the EU by dragging out the NATO vote, they have likely “overplayed their hand,” as the patience and trust of Hungary’s allies begins to wear thin, Hegedus said.
“I think no one will ever trust this Hungarian government anymore,” he said. “Hungary was treated as a NATO and EU ally whose government can be ultimately trusted because it’s one of us. Now, I think this perception is gone. Hungary will be treated differently because all of the partners know that trust is the last thing they can afford vis-a-vis Orban.”
Still, he said, Hungary’s parliament is likely to finally vote to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO applications “in the next couple of weeks or months,” especially if Turkey’s government votes to ratify Finland’s bid as it is expected to do.
In October, 1956, the Soviet Union ordered its troops to crush a nascent rebellion in Budapest, the capital of the Soviet satellite state of Hungary. Undertaken while the West was preoccupied by developments in the Middle East, the conflict demonstrated emerging political dissent in the Eastern Bloc.
