Sweden and Finland NATO accession: whose interests does Orbán represent?
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After Sweden and Finland requested to join NATO, among the members, only Türkiye and Hungary did not ratify the membership of the two applicant countries. However, according to the Finnish Defence Minister, he has recently received a promise that Hungary would not hinder their accession plans. Furthermore, the Hungarian prime minister already stated that he had asked the parliamentary group to ratify the accession of the two countries.
However, the Hungarian parliament has now postponed the final vote, which was scheduled to be held in early March, Index reports.
The government’s explanation
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, partly blamed the EU last November for the failure to ratify the accession of the two countries, Index recalls. As he said at the time, he believed that the EU wanted to decide on this issue too hastily.
Since then, as it has recently become clear, the decision is still not easy for Hungary. In response to a question from Index a few days ago, Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, said that the Hungarian government had been subjected to a series of false criticisms from Sweden and Finland in recent years. To settle the differences, Hungary is sending delegations to both countries. According to him, once the differences have been settled, the vote on ratification will probably take place in the second half of March.
Whose real interest is the postponement?
Magnus Christiansson, a professor of military science at the Swedish National Defence University Försvarshögskolan, has expressed serious concerns about Hungary’s latest decision. The Swedish expert’s statement was spotted by Index in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Christiansson said Hungary was trying to take the opportunity to promote its own position. Furthermore, he believes “it is entirely in Putin’s interest.” For, as he said,
An excellent description “a useful idiot for Putin”. Comments elsewhere are really showing the decline of popularity for this Viktator. Finally
PM Vktor Orbán rules by decree, but now, he is going to claim that it was “Parliament” that is stopping Sweden and Finland from getting into NATO. There always many scapegoats in his armoury.
Next, we’ll be reading that he now has a beef with Switzerland because of what Zürcher Zeitung wrote about him (“King Orbán’s Empire” – 5th of February).