Hungary changed course with Finland joining NATO, but Sweden is still waiting. While Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stresses the importance of NATO membership for his country, blocking Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is an example of a compromise between the West and Putin.

The historian and writer Ivo van Wijdven, who specializes in Eastern Europe, also sees this, who also asserts that Orbán could not have done otherwise in the case of Finland. This is because his Turkish ally, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has also accepted membership for the Finns.

Read also | Finland has become the thirty-first member of NATO after the approval of the Turkish Parliament

The role played by Hungary is remarkable. In general, the Eastern European member states of the European Union are quite hostile to Russia, while Hungary actually shows the opposite. “Hungary chose this because two words loomed in Viktor Orbán’s head: ‘Hungary first’,” says Van Wijdeven in BNR’s De Wereld, which also sees a certain similarity between Orban’s policy and that of former US President Donald Trump. Hungary and the Hungarians and his interests first, and everything must give way.”

juggling

Van Wijdven argues that Orbán is doing his best to juggle the EU, Russia and Turkey to get the best for Hungary. And although no leader of the country can be blamed for wanting the best for his country, Van Wijdven notes that something is bothering Orban when it comes to NATO and the EU. “It binds all kinds of files together,” he says. If you listen carefully to the Hungarian arguments about why Sweden should not become a member, it becomes clear that a good ‘discussion’ still has to be had on the Swedish critique of the rule of law in Hungary.

He says it’s a known problem. Where Orbán calls it reforming the rule of law, Sweden and the rest of Europe see an abuse of the independent rule of law. “Now Orbán has something to hold on to Sweden and the rest of Europe.”

thwarted

According to the historian, Orbán thus hopes to be able to intervene to extract certain things from other files, such as the cuts Europe has made to subsidies to Hungary. “But in that case it will explode in his face, probably.”

Read also | The “hostile attitude” costs Sweden temporary membership in NATO

Another factor is the fact that both Hungary and Slovakia have an exceptional position in the matter of energy supplies from Russia. It’s from the past, says Van Wijdven. “Hungary was a member of the Eastern Bloc and the pipelines were completely in place,” he says. “Hungary has traditionally relied on energy from Russia.”

Reliance increased

Indeed, under Orbán, this dependence has only increased. For example, the Russian company Rosatom is expanding the Paks nuclear power plant. According to van Wijdveen, this is all part of what Orban called his “Eastern opening” in 2013 – a deliberate rapprochement with Russia and Turkey, “because he saw he was in trouble in Europe and that he wanted to play both ways”.

Read also | The Hungarians choose two Russian nuclear reactors

Germany, he maintains, had a similar policy, but unlike Hungary now seemed willing to “Zeitenweende”, and also to pay for it. “Then you hit an important point,” concludes Van Wijdeven. Energy is becoming more expensive in Germany, while one of Orban’s election promises last year was that energy security would be maintained and that energy would remain cheap. The only way he can deal with that is by importing cheap Russian gas.