Hungary says 'unjust accusations' don’t help Sweden's NATO bid

LONDON

Hungary’s foreign minister slammed Swedish politicians Thursday for making "unfair and unjust" remarks about the state of democracy in his country, saying this "definitely does not help" along the ratification process for Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

In a letter to his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom, Peter Szijjarto said he previously spoke with him about "biased, negative, (and) unjust accusations" by Swedish politicians against his country.

He informed Billstrom that Hungarian lawmakers had read in the news that “as part of your school curriculum…serious accusations and fake information are being spread to the students in the schools of Sweden suggesting that democracy has been on a backslide in Hungary in recent years.”

"You urge our parliamentarians to ratify your accession to NATO while you continue to accuse them of destroying democracy in Hungary," said Szijjarto.

"This contradiction…definitely does not help your continuously raised demand to be fulfilled," he added.

Sweden applied for NATO membership along with Finland shortly after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022.