Hungary Marks 25 years as NATO member
March 15th, 2024A pro-government columnist warns against using NATO as a means to exert pressure on Hungary.
In Magyar Nemzet, László Szőcs writes that Hungary is not a stowaway in NATO as it makes sustained efforts to boost its military capabilities. He laments that the weight of the United States in the alliance largely supersedes that of all its European partners which raises doubts about Europe’s ability to defend itself. Szőcs criticises recent US attempts to put political pressure on Hungary (see e.g. BudaPost, March 14) and argues that NATO can only be strong as an alliance of sovereign countries. He also mentions Hungary’s opposition to the candidacy of former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the post of NATO Secretary General. (The Hungarian government refuses to support him because of a statement Mr Rutte made as Prime Minister three years ago when he accused the Hungarian government of homophobia and said Hungary should be ’brought to its knees’. See BudaPost, June 26, 2021).
By contrast, Mandiner’s Gergely Szilvay writes that Hungary is in the right place in NATO. The Atlantic Alliance, he argues, is the last traditional western international institution devoid of social engineering ideologies.