BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary has further delayed a vote on ratifying Sweden and Finland's NATO accession bids, according to an updated schedule published Thursday on the National Assembly's website, the latest in a series of postponements that have frustrated Western allies.
The delay, which pushes the vote back by two weeks to the parliamentary session beginning March 20, comes as Hungary remains the only NATO member country besides Turkey that hasn't yet approved the two Nordic countries' bids to join the Western military alliance.
Hungary's populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has said that he is personally in favor of the two countries joining NATO, but alleges that the governments in Stockholm and Helsinki have “spread blatant lies” about Hungary which have raised questions among lawmakers in his party on whether to approve the bids.
In a radio interview on Feb. 24, Orban confirmed that Hungary would send a parliamentary delegation to Sweden and Finland to seek “clarification” on such issues before the ratification could come to a vote in parliament.
“It's not right for them to ask us to take them on board while they're spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about our democracy and about life here,” Orban said. “(How) can anyone want to be our ally in a military system while they're shamelessly spreading lies about Hungary? So let's stop for a friendly word and…
