Sweden’s NATO membership ’unlikely’ to be approved this autumn
September 23rd, 2023A liberal commentator dismisses the latest argument brought up by the government side against approving Sweden’s bid for NATO membership.
In a press conference after the season-opening meeting of Fidesz MPs, floor leader Máté Kocsis found it unlikely for the motion to approve Sweden’s accession to NATO to pass before the end of the year. (See BudaPost, September 21.) MPs were shown a 10-minute Swedish video meant for schoolchildren in which Hungary’s government was depicted as undemocratic. Mr Kocsis said he doesn’t understand how Sweden’s leaders can expect Hungary to approve their country joining NATO ‘after that’. Hungary needs explanations, he added.
In her report on the press conference on the HVG website, Viktória Serdült remarks that the video was made four years ago, well before Sweden decided to join the North Atlantic alliance. Over the past more than one full year since the government tabled its motion to approve the Swedish bid, she adds, the issue of the video has never surfaced as a reason to delay the vote. It wasn’t even brought up, Serdült writes, by the parliamentary delegation sent to Stockholm to clarify Sweden’s position on Hungary last spring (see BudaPost, March 7).