COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (AP) – A Hungarian parliamentary delegation on Tuesday announced Sweden’s bid for NATO membership after meeting the speaker of the Swedish parliament to resolve what Hungary’s ruling party called a “political dispute”. said to support
Some Hungarian lawmakers have questioned whether they will support NATO membership applications by Sweden and Finland, citing what they call “blatant lies” from Stockholm and Helsinki about the state of Hungary’s democracy. . However, a Hungarian delegation indicated on Tuesday that Budapest’s parliament would finally ratify Sweden’s NATO proposal.
“We support Sweden joining NATO,” Hungarian parliamentary vice-president Csaba Hende told Swedish news agency TT. “We made it clear that the Hungarian government, the Hungarian president, the prime minister and most of the Hungarian parliamentarians clearly support Sweden joining NATO,” Hende told TT.
He added that bilateral relations between Budapest and Stockholm need to be improved.
Hungarian officials say Swedish and Finnish politicians are telling “outright lies” about Hungary.
“It is appropriate that Swedish politicians, government representatives and members of the EU parliament should not show or imply that a country lacks the rule of law on the basis of wholly false facts,” Hende said. he told TT.
Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said, “We can’t get rid of them when they spread blatant lies about Hungary, about the Hungarian rule of law, about our democracy and about life here. It is not right to ask us to accept it.”
Finnish president wants Finland and Sweden to join NATO by summer https://t.co/9rU8gNq6Vo
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 12, 2023
The delegation, which met with Swedish parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlen in Stockholm, will visit Finland to clarify their position. A visit to two Nordic countries delayed plans to ratify the petition, delaying the vote by two weeks. The Hungarian parliament is currently scheduled to vote on the bill during its session starting March 20.
Hungary is the only NATO member other than Turkey that has not yet approved a bid by Sweden and Finland. Neighbors in northern Europe abandoned years of military neutrality and sought NATO membership in May in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The visit took place during a two-day informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm, when NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christersson in the capital. increase. Sweden currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Finnish parliament overwhelmingly backs final approval of NATO bidhttps://t.co/FiGVy7QsRY
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 1, 2023
