In Hungary, the reasons for not yet ratifying Swedenʼs accession to NATO were named

The Hungarian government cited three reasons why Hungary has not yet ratified Swedenʼs accession to NATO. There, they believe that the Swedes lack "respect" for Hungary, and there is also a "hostile attitude".

This was written by the spokesperson of the Hungarian government Zoltan Kovacs in his blog on the About Hungary website.

According to him, Sweden is constantly "undermining relations" with Hungary. Recently, the political director of the prime ministerʼs office Baláš Orbán accused Sweden of repeatedly trying to "hit" Hungary through diplomatic channels.

"There is a declared and open hostile attitude that has been going on for years, even before the current events," writes a spokesman for the Hungarian government.

He also writes that in Sweden there is an "imaginary moral superiority that causes laughter."

"I would like to kindly remind the dear reader that it was not the ʼxenophobicʼ Hungarian state or its ʼdespotic regimeʼ that openly burned the Koran in the middle of the negotiation process for Swedenʼs accession to NATO, a process in which a major Muslim country participated," the spokesman wrote.

The third reason, according to Kovach, is "lack of respect." He noted that Hungary wanted to send a parliamentary delegation to Sweden to discuss the issue of accession, but there they refused such a visit.

"Time is running out, and with the security of the region hanging in the balance, it would be in everyoneʼs best interest for the Swedes to start supporting our shared goals. But, it seems, they are still not letting go of this insult," Kovach noted.

• On March 27, the Hungarian parliament voted 182 for Finlandʼs accession to NATO, six more MPs were against, and 11 abstained. Out of 30 NATO member countries, Hungary was the penultimate one to vote for NATO expansion, now only Turkey remains. However, there was no vote on Swedenʼs accession.
• In May 2022, Sweden and Finland renounced their traditional neutrality against the backdrop of Russiaʼs military invasion of Ukraine and submitted applications to join NATO. So far, among all the members of the Alliance, only Hungary and Turkey have not accepted their applications. However, there is progress on the issue of Finland — Hungary has already ratified its application, and Turkey has said it will do so in the near future. Regarding Sweden, discussions are ongoing.