Orban's party boycotts Hungarian parliamentary session on Sweden's accession to NATO
Kyiv • UNN
Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party and its allies boycotted an extraordinary session of the Hungarian parliament, which was to vote on the ratification of Sweden's application for NATO membership, making the vote impossible.
The Hungarian parliament convened for an extraordinary session today, but representatives of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party and their allies decided not to attend, which means that a vote on Sweden's application for NATO membership is impossible, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports, UNN writes.
Details
"As expected, Viktor Orban's Fidesz and their allies have decided not to show up. This means that a vote on Sweden's membership in NATO is not possible," the statement said.
"Most of the benches are empty," said SVT's European correspondent Christoffer Wendick, who is on the ground in Hungary.
"As previously announced, the Fidesz-KDNP MPs were not present at the meeting, which means that even the agenda could not be adopted, so after these statements, the chairman of the meeting, Sandor Lezsak, suspended the meeting," the Hungarian edition Telex notes.
Nevertheless, the newspaper writes, the presence of US Ambassador David Pressman, as well as the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Poland, and Slovakia, who watched from the gallery, "sent a strong message.
Addendum
An extraordinary parliamentary session to ensure that the Hungarian parliament votes in favor of Sweden's early accession to NATO was jointly initiated by the Hungarian opposition parties on Monday, according to Telex.
Hungary, which has not yet ratified Sweden's accession to NATO, is the only country in the military alliance that has not done so, after Turkey completed its ratification .
