Message from Brussels: Orbán should be deprived of his voting rights
MEP Guy Verhofstadt has lashed out at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Twitter.
The Hungarian news site Index spotted the MEP and former Belgian Prime Minister’s harsh reaction to a Politico article on Social Media.
Verhofstadt’s outburst
Verhofstadt posted a screenshot on Twitter of Politico’s article “Hungary’s Viktor Orbán plays spoilsport on NATO accession for Finland, Sweden”. The picture includes the title and subtitle of the article. Although the title is relatively strong, the subtitle might cool tempers a bit, stating “Hungarian parliament set to open debate on Nordic countries’ bid to join military alliance.”
The Belgian MEP furiously added the following comment:
How long we going to tolerate Orbán’s obstruction in EU, NATO and beyond ?
Let’s strip him of his voting rights as foreseen in the treaties ! pic.twitter.com/431aUaw1J9
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 1, 2023
Hungary as Europe’s troublemaker
According to the article shared by the MEP, Hungary has gained a reputation as Europe’s troublemaker. The author goes on to add that this reputation has now been further strengthened by the inability to decide on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO.
As we reported recently, the Hungarian parliament was due to hold a final vote on the ratification of the accession in early March. However, the vote has been postponed and now is planned to take place in the second half of March.
As Politico recalls, only Türkiye and Hungary are holding back ratification. As they write, Türkiye currently refuses to ratify the countries’ accession, claiming “that Stockholm is harboring Kurdish militants.” Hungary, meanwhile, is awaiting parliamentary approval. According to the article, Hungary, just like Türkiye, is stalling for time.
Politico has a good reason to draw a parallel between the leadership of the two countries. The Hungarian government is also holding back the vote because of its own grievances. According to the government, they have received false criticism several times from both Sweden and Finland over the past few years.
Nevertheless, Orbán recently noted that he personally is in favour of accession. But, according to him, many in his caucus do not support the ratification.
Although negotiations in the Hungarian parliament started on Wednesday this week, the vote is still a few weeks away.
