Hungary’s ruling party boycotts parliament session on Sweden’s NATO bid
Al Jazeera
Hungary is the only NATO member yet to approve Sweden’s accession to the military alliance.
Lawmakers from Hungary’s ruling party have boycotted an emergency parliament session in which a vote on Sweden’s bid to join NATO was on the agenda.
At Monday’s session, which was supported by six opposition parties, Fidesz lawmakers didn’t attend, scuttling the attempt to place a vote on the National Assembly’s schedule.
Turkey’s parliament voted to approve Sweden’s accession in January, making Hungary the last of the world’s largest military alliance’s 31 members not to do so.
Sweden had pursued a policy of military non-alignment since the Cold War. However, Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour Ukraine in 2022 caused upheaval in geopolitical calculations, and Stockholm applied to become a NATO member that same year.
Hungary has maintained close ties with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, and while it has said it supports the Swedish bid in principle, Budapest has been dragging its feet for months.
