Sweden NATO Bid Faces Delays After Orban Lawmakers’ Boycott

Zoltan Simon
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary session on Sweden’s entry into NATO, ensuring further delays in the long-running standoff between lone-holdout Hungary and its partners in the military alliance.

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Members of Orban’s Fidesz party stayed away from the meeting on Monday that Hungary’s opposition had called to ratify Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The next opportunity will be on Feb. 26, when the legislature reconvenes after its winter recess.

Patience over Orban’s obstructionism is wearing thin in NATO almost two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last week, a senior US lawmaker urged the Biden administration to consider imposing sanctions on Hungary, in part due to foot-dragging over the Swedish file. Turkey’s ratification last month left Hungary as the only NATO member that has yet to formally approve Stockholm’s bid.

The US ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, was among foreign dignitaries who attended the parliamentary session, in a sign of the pressure on Hungary to relent on the issue.

Ruling party lawmakers, who are under Orban’s tight control, are threatening to delay ratification until Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, visits Budapest. They say a visit is necessary to make amends for purported criticism about Hungary’s democratic backsliding.

Read more: Orban Escalates Standoff Over Sweden’s Accession to NATO

Parliament is ready to ratify the accession at the first opportunity, but only after such a meeting takes place, Mate Kocsis, the parliamentary caucus leader of Orban’s Fidesz party, said in a social media post earlier on Monday.

“Accepting the invitation would prove that this is an important question for Sweden,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a Facebook video.

Kristersson said last week he would prefer to come to Hungary only after Budapest moves on ratification. While his potential visit is seen in Hungary as a face-saving measure for Orban, Kristersson has been keen to avoid any optics of negotiating with the Hungarian leader.

Considered the most Russia-friendly premier in the European Union, Orban has broken a string of promises related to Sweden’s NATO accession, without clearly articulating Hungary’s reasons for the delays over such a strategic issue for NATO. Sweden is key for bolstering NATO’s ability to defend its eastern and northern flank against a Russian threat.

After Turkey’s ratification last month, Orban pledged to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that Hungary would ratify “at the first possible opportunity,” having earlier said that Hungary wouldn’t be the last holdout. The US Embassy published a brief statement on Friday, saying Monday’s extraordinary session of parliament provided an opportunity to make good on that promise.

(Updates with US ambassador in fourth paragraph, foreign minister in seventh.)

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