The Hungarian parliament has rejected a proposal to vote on Sweden's NATO membership application, the Associated Press reports.
MP from the opposition Democratic Coalition Agnes Vadai said that the initiative was blocked by the ruling Fidesz party, which has an absolute majority in parliament. According to Vadai, it will be possible to raise this issue again during the parliamentary session that begins on November 6.
Hungary is currently the main obstacle on Sweden's path to NATO after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan approved Stockholm's application and submitted the relevant protocol to parliament for ratification on October 23.
The Fidesz party, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is considered one of the few supporters of Russian dictator Putin in the European Union, has been blocking Sweden's application since July 2022, claiming that the kingdom's politicians are telling "outright lies" about the state of Hungarian democracy.
The day before, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Erdogan's decision to give the green light to Sweden Sweden, will not affect Hungary's position – it will make an independent decision on this issue.
Sweden applied to join NATO last year along with Finland. Both countries made this decision out of concern for their security in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Initially, it was planned that Sweden and Finland would join NATO simultaneously, but due to the difficulties Sweden had with Turkey and Hungary, Finland joined the bloc on its own in April this year.
NATO hopes that Sweden will become the 32nd member of the Alliance by the end of November.