Hungarian parliament to ratify Sweden's NATO accession on Feb 26: ruling party

BUDAPEST -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party has said that its parliamentary group will ratify Sweden's NATO accession on Feb 26.

Mate Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, shared his letter to Speaker of the Parliament Laszlo Kover on his Facebook page on Tuesday. In the letter, Kocsis said his group "wishes to support" Sweden's accession to NATO.

Kocsis asked the speaker to include the final vote on Sweden's NATO accession in the agenda of the first spring session of the National Assembly on Feb 26.

Given that the Hungarian ruling party controls over two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly, their endorsement of Sweden's NATO membership virtually guarantees that the Parliament will vote in favor of Sweden's bid to join NATO.

Hungary has delayed ratifying Sweden's NATO accession for over a year, making it the last NATO member yet to do so.

The delay has been attributed to internal debates within the Fidesz parliamentary group over Swedish criticism of Hungary's rule of law. However, this dispute is set to be resolved during forthcoming discussions between Orban and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Kristersson will visit Budapest on Friday to discuss with the Hungarian side defense and security cooperation, as well as Hungary's upcoming EU presidency preparations, Orban's press chief Bertalan Havasi said on Tuesday.