The Scandinavian governments' hostile attitude towards Hungary has thrown a serious obstacle in the path of their NATO membership.Continue reading
We expect the Swedish government to reassure the members of the Hungarian Parliament that our goal is to be able to support Sweden’s NATO accession with as large a parliamentary majority as possible, similar to that of Finland, the Prime Minister’s political director told Kossuth Radio, analyzing the Hungarian support for the two candidate countries.
Balázs Orbán said that “the situation is clearer than ever: we also support the Swedish accession, the government has already decided on it, it is up to parliament, but there is a small snag.” Some Hungarian MPs are not satisfied because they have seen that in recent years, Swedish government officials have made a sport of constantly questioning the state of Hungarian democracy, insulting Hungarian voters, their representatives, and thus Hungary as a whole, he argued. He said they did not want to take sides on Swedish domestic policy issues, but expected others to do the same on Hungarian issues.
Political Director Balázs Orbán (L) with his boss, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Photo: Facebook Balázs Orbán
The Hungarian MPs expect reassurance that the political disputes between the two countries are no more, and that there is no problem with the foundations of Hungarian-Swedish cooperation, he noted. In the case of Finland, he said it was a “special historical friendship and alliance,…it seems that we have received confirmation from the Finns that these problems will not persist in the future,” but this was not the case for Sweden.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson himself has made strongly disparaging remarks about Hungary in the past. Photo: Facebook Ulf Kristersson
In the context of the armed conflict in Ukraine, the main topic of the EU summit held this week, Balázs Orbán stressed that Hungary supports the proposals to improve defense cooperation, but is not willing to allow weapons procured in Hungary or through Hungary to be placed on the Ukrainian-Russian front as a result of such cooperation.
We support the joint procurement of weapons, but only the Hungarian Defense Forces and Hungarian soldiers can benefit from it, so we continue to stand by the principle of not participating in the conflict by supplying weapons,”
he pointed out.
Balázs Orbán also reported that migration was touched upon at the EU summit. He pointed out that the European Council had earlier adopted conclusions calling on the European Commission to act to strengthen border protection, and to provide legal and financial support to member states defending themselves against illegal migration. “The chairwoman of the committee has reported some progress, but it seems to be more of a stopgap measure,” he said.
Balázs Orbán stressed that the Hungarian approach is very clear: as long as EU support is available for training and equipping the forces involved in border protection, but not for building or reinforcing the fence, there can be no turnaround. At present, EU law and its interpretation in Brussels do not support the Hungarian border protection system, but try to undermine its effectiveness. The European Commission is in default, it is not implementing the Council conclusions, he added.
Balázs Orbán stressed that illegal migration pressure is constantly increasing on the southern border, Hungary is committed to strengthening the fence, and is asking for support in this regard, “but the EU continues to support a pro-immigration position.”
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