Foreign policy: one strike right, one strike left

HUNGARY - In Brief 21 Mar 2023 by Istvan Racz

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In recent days, Hungary continued its usual policy outside the mainstream of the EU and NATO, in a way that could be characterised best as uneasy cooperation, an extremely delicate and risky process in our view. For one issue, Fidesz has announced a decision to support Finland's NATO membership, casting a vote of approval in parliament on March 27, after sitting on the issue for no less than eight months. To Sweden's accession, the Fidesz faction expects to return later. Somewhat strangely, this decision looks pretty much like a mirror image of Turkey's recent action on the matter: indeed, Messrs. Orbán and Erdogan met personally immediately before the decision on Finland was announced on both sides. Even more strangely, the government had made clear that it did not have any problem with the Finnish/Swedish NATO accession, and formally PM Orbán asked parliament to approve the accession of both countries as soon as possible. But somehow Hungary's parliament did not find the time to pick up the issue, and then it had certain doubts and questions, the latter especially regarding some alleged lies some EU members, including Scandinavian countries, had voiced on the state of the rule of law in Hungary. After all, Hungary in itself did not hold up the Finnish/Swedish accession process at all. And its interesting behaviour may have served to earn some goodwill from Messrs. Erdogan and Putin, in addition to some hardliner-style demonstration to their domestic audience and expressing the government's dissatisfaction with Finland's and Sweden's earlier hard push to block EU funds to Hungary. For a second issue, Hungary has decided to participate in the EU's new schemes to suppor...