A new video produced by the Swedish public broadcaster Utbildningsradion (UR) that attempts to paint the Hungarian state as anti-democratic has sparked widespread outrage in Hungary, prompting stern warnings from high-level government officials that the inflammatory content could affect Sweden’s NATO accession bid.
The 10-minute episode, titled “The EU and Democracy,” is part of a four-part series on the European Union, that, among other things, details—and puts forward a sympathetic view of—actions taken against Hungary by various EU institutions in the name of ‘democratic values’ and what they call ‘the rule of law.’
The short documentary’s editorial line, which takes a clear position against the Hungarian government, caused Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjárto to reach out to his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billström in a letter on Thursday, September 16th. In the letter, Szijjárto mentioned that he had previously spoken with Billström about “biased, negative, and unjust” remarks by Swedish politicians regarding the state of democracy in Hungary.
Furthermore, the Hungarian foreign minister conveyed to Billström that Hungarian legislators had recently come across reports suggesting 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,” Szijjárto wrote. “This contradiction … definitely does not help your continuously raised demand to be fulfilled,” the minister added, referring to Sweden’s drawn-out bid to join the NATO military alliance, which Hungary has yet to ratify.
Sweden first submitted its NATO membership application in tandem with Finland shortly after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022. While Finland became a member of the alliance in April of 2023, Sweden’s application has been held up mainly due to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Szijjárto’s sentiment was echoed by other high-level officials in the Hungarian government, including Balázs Orbán, a member of parliament and the prime minister’s chief political director, Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Relations Zoltan Kovacs, and Gergely Gulyás, a senior Fidesz MP, among others.
“Shocking Swedish government-approved educational video attacking Hungary! How do we convince Hungarian MPs to support Sweden’s [NATO] membership when our democracy is repeatedly questioned, insulting both our voters and the entire country?” Actions like this will definitely make negotiations more challenging,” Balázs Orbán wrote on Twitter with a link to the video clip.
Gulyás, the minister who heads the Prime Minister’s Office, also chimed in on the matter, saying:” If the film is played in state schools, it means that Sweden is doing everything to prevent Hungary from ratifying its accession to NATO.”
“The educational film is obviously an accusation without any basis and an unjustified insult to Hungary, and if this is the case, I will suggest to group leader Mate Kocsis that we view it at the beginning of our parliamentary group meeting,” he added.
In a column highly critical of Hungary, Elisabeth Braw, columnist at Foreign Policy and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, described Szijjárto’s letter as “petulant,” and wrote:
Szijjarto is right to observe that Swedish politicians have been rather critical of Hungary. The ones who have verbally attacked the country are, however, not Billstrom nor any other members of the parties forming the government. Instead, it’s coming from former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden’s long-ruling Social Democrats, who is still licking her wounds after losing last year’s election to a center-right coalition, and has compared now-Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s policies to those of Orban.
Swedish journalist Erik Almqvist also weighed in on the new video on social media. As a Swede, he said, this “is highly embarrassing for me,” adding: “But unfortunately, this is how the Swedish state media operates: false accusations and blunt lies against any country where people don’t vote liberal.”
