Hungary delays ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership -media

Hungary’s parliament will not ratify Sweden’s NATO membership before the summer recess as it has not included the vote in the agenda of next week’s session, Hungarian online media reported on Wednesday.

News websites hvg.hu and index.hu reported that parliament, dominated by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, would further delay the vote after previously citing a deterioration in relations with Sweden.

Parliament’s press office did not confirm the reports, saying the agenda of next week’s session would be finalised at a meeting of the house committee on Thursday.

In a Facebook post, leftist opposition lawmaker Agnes Vadai said Orban would not put the vote on Sweden’s NATO accession on next week’s agenda. The Swedish Foreign Ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, seeking greater security by joining NATO. Finland became a NATO member in April but the process has been slower for Sweden.

Sweden has set its sights on joining at the alliance’s July 11-12 summit and while it has strong support from other members including the United States, both Turkey and Hungary have so far held back from ratification.

With Hungary’s ratification process stranded in parliament since last July, Orban aired concerns about Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership for the first time in February.

Among other criticisms, he has accused both countries of spreading “outright lies” about the health of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary, although Hungarian lawmakers approved Finland’s bid in late March.

Orban has been at loggerheads with European Union headquarters in Brussels for years over EU criticism of Hungary’s record on democracy and rule of law standards since he took office in 2010.

In April, Orban’s chief of staff called on Sweden to take steps to boost confidence, saying relations between Stockholm and Budapest were at a low point.