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Sweden and Finland can ‘count on Hungary over Nato’

Finland and Sweden can count on Hungary to support their accession to Nato, a government official said on Wednesday, with a parliamentary vote on the cards before the year-end.

Published: 9 November 2022 19:30 CET

Sweden and Finland can 'count on Hungary over Nato'

General view taken as the representatives of the Hungarian Parliament vote in the main hall of the parliament building in Budapest on October 04, 2022. Photo: Attila Kisbendek/AFP

All 30 Nato member states except Hungary and Turkey have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland, which dropped decades of military non-alignment with bids to join Nato after Russia invaded Ukraine.

New members to the Nato alliance require unanimous approval. Hungary’s ruling party has repeatedly rejected scheduling a vote in parliament on the issue though the government insists it backs the two Nordic nation’s accession to Nato.

“For us, the Finns and the Swedes are our allies, and just like we can count on our allies, they can count on us too,” said Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“We have no objections,” he told a press briefing. Orban has sought close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years, and although his country has supported EU sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, the Hungarian leader has repeatedly criticised the measures in public.

Gulyas said Hungary had to pass anti-corruption reforms, closely watched by Brussels, before parliament can turn to the Nato issue.

EU member Hungary is in talks with Brussels to unlock EU funding currently held over corruption concerns.

“The number of laws that remain (to be voted on) depends on when and how the agreement with the Commission is reached,” Gulyas said.

The goal, he specified, was to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s Nato membership application “during the autumn session” of parliament, which ends on December 7.

The Hungarian opposition accuses Orban’s party of dragging its feet by refusing to put the issue on parliament’s agenda for a vote. The Socialist Party called it “incomprehensible and unjustified”, while the Momentum party accused the government of “blackmailing” the EU.

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EXPLAINED: Is national service compulsory in Sweden?

Although Sweden hasn’t formally been involved in a war since 1814, the country has had some sort of conscription system since the 17th century, excluding a seven-year window between 2010 and 2017, where it was scrapped (or more specifically, “suspended in peacetime”).

Historically, it applied to men only, but was extended to include women in 2010.

Is it mandatory?

Yes and no.

When a Swedish citizen turns 18, they receive a letter from The Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency asking for information on their health, interests and education, in order to determine whether they should be called up for compulsory military service, officially known as värnplikt (“duty to protect”).

This document is sent out to all Swedes turning 18 in a given year, and it is mandatory to fill this in, with a few exceptions, such as people who receive benefits from the Social Insurance Agency or residential care homes for children and young people (like HVB-hem or SiS-hem).

Having said that, it is by no means every Swede turning 18 in a given year who actually ends up carrying out military service.

In 2023, the agency collected information on 102,286 young people in Sweden turning 18 that year, with 36,420 called up for testing.

If you don’t turn up to these tests, known in Swedish as mönstringen, you can be sentenced to brott mot totalförsvarsplikten or “crime against the total defence obligation”, which carries with it a fine of 2,000 kronor or up to a year in prison.

READ ALSO: Can dual citizens be called up for Swedish military service?

These tests at the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency are mandatory, and include a theory test, a medical examination, eye and colour blindness tests, hearing tests, as well as an EKG test, pulse and blood pressure tests.

You’ll also need to do a general fitness test and a strength test, as well as an interview with a psychologist to determine whether you’re cut out for military training.

Each test will be scored separately, with your total points determining which course within the Swedish armed forces you’ll be assigned to. You’re allowed to express a preference, although you’re not guaranteed to get a position on the course of your choice. Military training (colloquially known as lumpen) takes between 9 and 15 months, depending on the course.

Not everyone who carries out these tests will actually be called up for military training – in 2023, 6,144 (around 6 percent of everyone turning 18 that year) were assigned a course within the Swedish army, where they were joined by an additional 1,166 individuals who had applied of their own accord.

Those who pass the tests but who aren’t assigned a position in the army are placed in the reserves, alongside people who delayed their conscription (due to their studies, for example). People in this group could be called up to perform military service if Swedish security is placed on high alert.

What about conscientious objectors?

People who for religious or political reasons do not want to use weapons can apply to carry out weapon-free military service or vapenfri tjänst.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have to serve at all, but you could be assigned to civil basic training, which essentially means you’d help ensure that important services like healthcare, childcare or the fire services were still running if there was a crisis.

At the moment, there are no civil basic training courses for conscientious objectors running, although the government has the power to reintroduce these.

There is no programme in Sweden similar to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans for 18-year-olds to dedicate one weekend a month volunteering in the community, for example by “delivering prescriptions and food to infirm people”.

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