Croatian President promises to veto Sweden-Finland NATO membership, if he can – EURACTIV.com
Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that he would block the accession of Sweden and Finland at the NATO summit in Madrid if he is the one representing Croatia, after previously expressing his opposition to the two countries’ possible NATO accession.
“As Head of State representing Croatia at the NATO Summit, I will veto admission if the Summit is held at that level,” Milanović told reporters in the eastern city of Vukovar, EURACTIV’s partner Jutarnji list reported.
If the invitations to the summit are sent to NATO ambassadors, Milanovic said, but he was not sure he could persuade the Croatian ambassador to embrace his position, but added that “I will hunt down the sinful souls of every Member of Parliament who votes for the devil. . “
The Croatian parliament, whose ruling conservative HDZ party has a narrow majority, is expected to approve Sweden’s and Norway’s application. The only obstacle may be the president’s veto at the summit itself.
According to the Croatian constitution, the president is the Croatian army’s supreme commander and has a say in foreign policy. While Prime Minister Andrei Plenković regularly represents Croatia at EU summits, President Milanović can and has represented Croatia at such events in the past.
The NATO debate has officially begun in Helsinki, and many Finnish politicians have indicated that a request to join the alliance could be made in June.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin recently stressed that a decision to join NATO would be taken “soon”, while Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Irish Times that Finland can apply to join NATO even without Sweden.
In an interview with EURACTIV on 2 May, Green MP Alviina Alametsä said that a majority in Parliament and the public in her country are now in favor of NATO membership, for which they hope to receive “some signals and symbols of support during a possible membership application”.
“I think the risk of being attacked by Russia is much greater if we stay outside NATO than if we apply for membership,” said Alametsä, who is also a member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
To talk to CNBCJacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in the United States, said that Finland’s accession to NATO would put an end to the idea of ”forced neutrality between East and West.”
“This highlights how Russia’s horrific actions in Ukraine have forced previously neutral countries to fully engage with NATO in ‘either you are completely with us, or we will not protect you,'” he noted.