Hungary, the only NATO country with Turkey not to have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland, pushed it back on Thursday November 24 until next year.
The Hungarian Parliament will vote “
during the first session
” in 2023, declared nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the sidelines of a summit of the Visegrad group in Kosice (Slovakia), assuring the two countries of his “
support
”.
Budapest had recently promised ratification by the end of 2022. Now it will have to wait until February, when the Assembly will meet for the first time in 2023, unless an extraordinary session is called before.
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Hungary has argued a legislative impasse due to the series of anti-corruption measures to be voted on by Parliament in response to fears about it from the European Commission, which is blocking billions of euros in funds.
The Visegrad group (V4), founded 30 years ago in the midst of the post-communist transition, brings together Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden submitted a joint bid to join the Atlantic Alliance in May, abandoning decades of military non-alignment.
This, which must be accepted unanimously by the 30 member states of NATO, has been ratified by all with the exception of Turkey and Hungary.
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"
The Finns and the Swedes are our allies and, just as we can count on our allies, they can count on us too
", declared in early November Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, saying "
not having of objections
" to their membership.
The opposition has repeatedly demanded that the issue be put on the agenda of parliament, a request consistently rejected by the ruling party.
The Socialists denounced "
an incomprehensible decision
", while the liberal formation Momentum accuses the government of "
blackmail
" towards Brussels.