Hungarian MPs boycotted vote on Sweden's accession to NATO

The Hungarian parliament was unable to ratify Sweden's application to join NATO due to a lack of quorum. The extraordinary meeting was declared invalid even at the stage of approval of the agenda, since the ruling parties, having 133 seats out of 199, were not present, as promised. In total there were 51 deputies in the hall.

The fact that the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democratic People's Party alliance will not take part in the vote became known last Friday, February 2. The coalition said it would wait for a personal meeting between the prime ministers of Hungary and Sweden. The head of the Fidesz faction, Mate Kocsis, said that ratification could take place at the very beginning of the spring session, which starts at the end of February.

Deputies from opposition parties demanded to convene an extraordinary meeting.

Thus, LMP representative Mate Camas-Nagy said that the absence of the ruling parties in the hall made the situation “extremely awkward.” As recalled by Bence Tordai and Tamás Harangoso from Parbeszed and MSZP, the Hungarian government promised that Hungary would not be the last country to ratify Sweden's application to  NATO . A deputy from the Mi Hazank party, which regularly opposes NATO expansion, Elod Novak proposed to get out of the situation by vetoing Sweden’s entry into NATO, thereby “Turkey will be the last country to ratify.” Due to the absence of representatives of the ruling parties, there were no answers to the claims of opposition deputies.

After Turkey's positive vote, Hungary remains the only country that has not ratified Sweden's admission to NATO. Prime Minister Viktor Orban invited his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to Budapest to discuss the situation. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto expressed hope that this visit will help build trust between the Hungarian parliament and the Swedish authorities. According to him, it would be right if Kristersson arrives before ratification, if only because he also visited Turkey.

As Orban stated, the government supports the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, but deputies are not eager to ratify it, since the authorities of these countries are spreading “shameless lies” about Hungary.

The Turkish parliament approved ratification in mid-January. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan then signed a decree approving the decision, thus officially completing the ratification process.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO after the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. Finland officially became the 31st member of the alliance on April 4, 2023.