Hungarian President Katalin Novak urged parliamentarians to vote in favor of the proposal to join NATO by Sweden and Finland as discussions began in the Hungarian parliament of existing NATO member countries on the 1st.
Sweden and Finland, which had long advocated military neutrality, changed their attitudes after Russia invaded Ukraine last year and applied for NATO membership at the same time in early May. Is in progress.
Parliaments of 28 of these countries have already approved Sweden and Finland’s accession, but Turkey is not giving up its strong opposition to Sweden, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is close to Russian President Putin, has yet to give a definite answer. All 30 countries’ parliaments must ratify it for accession to take place.
“Some people think that this issue will be resolved quickly as a technical issue, but that is not the case,” the Hungarian female president said in a Facebook statement on the same day. As it is a complex decision matter with serious follow-up consequences, it must be approached carefully,” she said.
“My position is clear: Sweden and Finland joining NATO are justified under the current circumstances,” Novak said. I believe Congress will make smart decisions quickly!”
President Novak (44) not only belongs to the same nationalist Fidesz Party as Prime Minister Orban, but also served as vice president of the party before being elected president, and also served as Minister of Family Affairs in the Orban government at the time.
The Hungarian presidency is elected by parliamentary elections, and when general elections are held in the cabinet system, each party’s candidate for prime minister runs with the presidential candidate as his running mate.
Orban of the Fidesz party, who came to power after winning the first general election in 2010, exposed his authoritarian behavior ignoring democracy and the rule of law, the major principles of the European Union (EU), to which Hungary joined. Along with Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Orbán was dubbed the “dictator” of Europe in 2015 when a wave of reckless migrants surged across the border holding the banner of European (white) pure blood most firmly. has blocked
Contrary to the expectations of many European countries, Orbán, who has caused a lot of friction with the European Commission and NATO headquarters along with a pro-Russia line, won the general election in March last year with ease and became Prime Minister for the fifth consecutive term. With EU and NATO’s support for Ukraine at every turn, the EU executive has been struggling to negotiate with Orban by leveraging billions of euros in aid allocations to member states.
It is still unknown whether President Novak, who was Orban’s running mate in the same Fidesz party last year, is transparently approving, supporting, and urging both countries to join NATO as a personal judgment or whether Orban’s intention to shake Hungary was involved in the slightest. does not exist.
Meanwhile, Turkey will discuss the issue of joining the two countries again at NATO Headquarters in Brussels from the 9th. Attention is focusing on whether only Finland will agree to join, or whether President Erdogan, whose position has narrowed at home and abroad due to the devastating earthquake on the 6th of last month, will come out as an appeasement.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.