Hungary PM CoS-Parl't Likely To Vote On Sweden Accession In Spring Session

Speaking at a press briefing, Chief of Staff to Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, Gergely Gulyas, states that the Hungarian National Assembly is set to vote on Sweden's accession to NATO 'most probably during its spring session'. He did not give a firm timeline. Sweden's accession vote is set to come after that for Finland, with Hungarian lawmakers to vote on the ratification of Finnish accession on 27 March. Orban's populist Fidesz Party, which holds a supermajority in the assembly, is set to vote in favour of ratification.

• While Turkey has dragged its feet on Sweden's accession due to disagreements w/Stockholm over the extradition of Kurdish dissidents/terrorists, for Budapest the conflict has come with the EU.
• The Orban gov't is seeking to ensure the disbursement of billions of euros in EU funding as part of the COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Facility, this and other structural funding has been held up by EU concerns about rule of law breaches by the Orban gov't. Speculation is that the Hungarian gov't is seeking to ensure Swedish/Finnish support (or at least silence) on the issue of accessing funds by delaying NATO ratification.