US Turns Up the Pressure

Working for those rolling dollars: Pressman personally oversees the opposition's efforts in the National Assembly.

On the initiative of the opposition, Speaker Laszlo Kover convened an extraordinary session of Parliament on Monday. The meeting was initiated by the Hungarian Socialists (MSZP) and supported by the Democratic Coalition (DK), Momentum, Jobbik, Dialogue and LMP party groups, and one independent MEP. In addition to the final vote on Sweden's accession to NATO, two opposition motions were also put on the agenda. The proposal on Sweden's accession to NATO was debated in Parliament on March 1 last year leaving only the final decision pending.

Fidesz announced last week that the government parties would not participate in the meeting initiated by the opposition. Thus, due to the lack of a quorum, the extraordinary session of the parliament ended after the pre-agenda speeches. 

Green-lighting Swedish membership in NATO could be scheduled for the very beginning of the regular parliamentary session, but this requires a meeting between the two prime ministers in Budapest, the Fidesz group leader pointed out. Mate Kocsis wrote on his Facebook page that if accession is important to the Swedes, they will come here, just as they went to Turkey.

Among the opening speakers before the agenda, LMP politician Mate Kanasz-Nagy said that people should be consulted on important issues. Bence Tordai, head of the Dialogue Party parliamentary group said that it is in Hungary's national interest for Sweden to become a member of NATO.

"We must veto Sweden's accession to NATO because it would be a step taken towards World War III,"

said Elod Novak in his speech before the agenda. According to the right-wing Our Homeland (Mi hazank)party MEP, it is also in the interest of the Swedes not to expand the war conflict by joining NATO.

Koloman Brenner of Jobbik, said that delaying Sweden's accession to NATO is against the Hungarian national interest. In his speech, Tamas Harangozo, MSZP MEP, welcomed the attending ambassadors of allied countries, including US Ambassador David Pressman. The Socialist MEP termed it an international shame that Sweden's accession to NATO had not yet been ratified. Speaking on the legalisation of active euthanasia, Momentum MEP David Bedo called on the government to initiate a referendum on the issue. "The delay in Sweden's accession to NATO was not a simple oversight, said DK politician Agnes Vadai in her speech. The Gyurcsany party MEP said it had endangered the country and peripheralized it.

At the end of the meeting, the letters of Fidesz group leader Mate Kocsis and Christian Democrat (KDNP) group leader Istvan Simicsko, were read out, confirming that the governing parties will not participate in the extraordinary session.

Cover photo: Hungarian National Assembly (Photo: MTI/Noemi Bruzak)