In late March, the Hungarian parliament ratified Finland’s NATO membership, which led to joining it as a member a week later. At the time, some Hungarian officials “spent months telling counterparts that they had no objections, and their parliament was simply busy with other business,” as reported by Politico. “Budapest changed its narrative… with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán… arguing the point that some of his legislators had qualms regarding criticism of the state of Hungarian democracy.” While taking longer than perhaps hoped, the Hungarian parliament ultimately voted to ratify it by a margin of 182 to 6 on March 27.