Yesterday, the Hungary of ultra-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took two different steps in its relationship with the Atlantic Alliance. At the same time that its long delay in the process of ratifying Sweden’s entry into NATO culminated – with the signature of the new president of the republic, Tamás Sulyok, who took office yesterday –, the Government announced its veto of the favorite candidate for the secretariat general of the alliance, the Dutch Mark Rutte. “We cannot support the election as NATO Secretary General of a person who wanted to bring Hungary to its knees,” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Budapest.
The appointment of the NATO secretary general requires the consensus of the 31 member countries, which will be 32 when Sweden joins in the coming days. The term of the current secretary general, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, ends on October 1. Stoltenberg, elected in 2014, had been in office for eight years – that is, two terms – when Russia invaded Ukraine. This and the lack of a consensus alternative candidate prompted the member countries to extend it twice for two annual periods.
Mark Rutte, outgoing Prime Minister of the Netherlands, has the endorsement of the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom to succeed him. But now the Hungarian no arises: Szijjártó said that “it would be very strange” to support him after his criticism in 2021. That year, a law considered homophobic induced Brussels to open an infringement procedure for the country. Rutte then said that Hungary “no longer had anything to do within the European Union,” and that if Orbán did not agree with community values, he only had to activate article 50 of the treaty, “which was created for that.” and leave the EU.
