Marshal Laszlo Kover held the meeting on Monday at the request of the opposition, which is demanding that Fidesz accept Sweden's membership in NATO as soon as possible. Due to the lack of representatives from the coalition in the hall, the necessary quorum for voting was not available.
Ambassadors of several coalition countries appeared in Parliament, including US Ambassador David Pressman. Last week, politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties called on Hungary to accept the Swedish proposal as soon as possible.
As previously expected, the ruling coalition boycotted the proceedings, as it had done in the past. On Sunday, the government meeting began outside its home ground in Sopron in the northwest of the country, which heralded this scenario.
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Members of Viktor Orban's government They have repeatedly stressed that their country will not be the last NATO country to agree to Sweden joining NATO. But after the Turkish Parliament ratified the accession in the second half of last January and was signed by the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this is exactly what happened.
“Sweden’s accession to NATO may be ratified at the beginning of the regular parliamentary session, but this will require a meeting of the prime ministers in Budapest,” Matej Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, wrote on Facebook on Monday. “If joining NATO is important to the Swedes, they will come here, just as they went to Turkey,” the politician added.
In an interview on Sunday with Belgian VRT television, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that although the government supports Sweden joining the alliance, many Fidesz MPs do not like the criticism coming from Stockholm of relations in Hungary.
Orban invited Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to visit Budapest on January 23 in order to “strengthen bilateral relations between Hungary and Sweden by deepening mutual trust.”
Kristersson said he was ready to visit Budapest, but only after the Hungarian Parliament voted in favor of his country joining NATO.
The spring session of the Hungarian Parliament is scheduled to begin at the end of February. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects this to happen when the chamber ratifies Sweden's accession to the alliance.
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