Hungarian Parliament not yet to vote on ratification of Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO

The majority of the governing party voted down the MSZP motion that would have set the parliamentary vote on Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership for Tuesday 4 October, according to a Facebook post by the proposer of the motion, Bertalan Tóth.

For a new member state to join NATO, it must be ratified by all existing member states in their parliaments. According to 24.hu, apart from Hungary, Turkey is the only NATO member that has not yet ratified the two countries’ accession to the military alliance.

The Hungarian government tabled a proposal to support Swedish and Finnish accession two and a half months ago, but it has still not been put on the agenda for adoption.

The opposition Socialist Party (MSZP) would have accelerated the adoption of the two proposals and asked for them to be put on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.

This was rejected by Speaker László Kövér on his own authority, and when the MSZP asked for an open vote on the issue, he voted it down together with the Fidesz majority.

The Parliament’s press department told Telex earlier that the vote on the two countries’ NATO membership is on the autumn parliamentary agenda, but did not say when exactly it would take place.

It was announced before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June that all member states had agreed to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. However, to finalise the process, not only do the leaders of the countries have to agree, but the parliaments of the countries also have to sign the laws to this effect. This has now been done by all except Turkey, which is already opposed to accession, and Hungary, which is waiting for an unknown reason.

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