A representative of the Hungarian power coalition listed to the reasons why the ratification of Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership in the country’s parliament is once again postponed to the future.
17:18•Updated 17:30
BUDAPEST Today, Wednesday, the Hungarian Parliament started the ratification process for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.
The final vote on the matter is still not in sight: the foreign policy representative of the Fidesz and Christian Democrats coalition Nacsa Lőrinc estimates that the mere processing, i.e. holding the speeches of the Parliament, would take 3–4 weeks.
In addition, before the decisive vote, the parliament wants to send a delegation to Finland to discuss issues that still anger Hungarians.
The Hungarian Parliament has sent a visit request to the Parliament. A delegation of a few people will come to Finland possibly next week. Lőrinc is probably in the group.
In an interview with in December, Lőrinc promised that Hungary would ratify Finland’s membership as soon as the beginning of 2023.
“I can only promise that we will not be the last to ratify”
Now, according to him, the situation has changed. Lőrinc further promised that Hungary will not be the last country to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership. That is, it would ratify the membership of the countries before Turkey.
Lőrinc listed to the reasons why the promised ratification keeps getting postponed. According to him, the biggest reason is that Finnish and Swedish politicians, both in the European parliament and in the parliament, have insulted Hungarians.
Finland and Sweden have demanded that Hungary implement the rule of law reforms required by the EU.
– We have enacted laws that are based on Hungarian democracy. We have the authorization of Hungarian citizens for them.
– These laws are based on our national interests. They are related to child protection, treatment of the pandemic, our way of life, illegal immigration. They don’t just criticize us, they insult us because the laws concerning these issues are based on Hungarian democracy, Lőrinc argued.
“Just ridiculous theater”
Turkey has differences with Sweden on the issue of terrorism.
However, Hungary has no valid reason not to ratify Finland and Sweden, the editor-in-chief of the independent magazine HVG Gergely Marton says.
– There are no bilateral political differences between the countries.
– The Fidesz party complains that the Nordic politicians spoke unkindly about Hungary. However, they fail to mention that at the same time Swedish and Finnish taxpayers put a lot of money into EU funds that benefit Hungary. This is all just ridiculous theater, Márton continues.
He reminds that a parliamentary vote might not even be necessary: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán could, if it wanted to, use the exceptional law enacted due to the war in Ukraine and ratify the countries themselves.
It wouldn’t even be against Hungarian democracy, because the Hungarian government has already accepted NATO membership and his coalition has a majority in the parliament.
– In the end, everything is about the prime minister, who for some reason wants to play for time again, says Márton.