Orbán infuriates Warsaw by granting political asylum to former Polish minister

Poland’s government reacted with rage Friday to a decision by Hungary’s government to grant political asylum to fugitive former Polish Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski.

Budapest announced the asylum on Thursday night. 

The move marks a further breakdown in relations between Poland and Hungary, with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski calling it an “unfriendly step” by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s populist government.

Sikorski’s ministry summoned the Hungarian ambassador on Friday morning.

“We consider the decision to grant political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted under a European arrest warrant, to be an act hostile to the Republic of Poland and contrary to the elementary principles binding the member states of the European Union,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Justifying this decision with alleged political persecution is an insult to citizens and Polish authorities,” it added.

Romanowski, an MP with the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, faces 11 charges in Poland for misuse of public funds when he was deputy justice minister from 2019 to 2023. Over the summer, the Polish parliament lifted his immunity, and on Thursday a Warsaw court issued a European arrest warrant for him.

In a video message on X posted Thursday, Romanowski accused Polish Prime Donald Tusk and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar of “illegally usurping power” and of improperly prosecuting him. Tusk’s government has launched a campaign to prosecute officials from the previous government accused of wrongdoing.

When PiS was in power from 2015 to 2023 it cultivated close relations with Orbán’s Fidesz party, as both ran into trouble with the European Commission over allegations they were backsliding on the bloc’s democratic principles. Relations between Poland and Hungary have become increasingly hostile after Tusk and his centrist coalition defeated PiS in late 2023.

Tusk on Friday denounced the Hungarian decision, comparing the government in Budapest to Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorship in Belarus.

“I did not expect that corrupt officials fleeing justice could choose between Lukashenko and Orbán in seeking refuge from justice,” he told reporters.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Hungary has granted political asylum to friendly politicians, as it did in 2018 to former Prime Minister of North Macedonia Nikola Gruevski when he was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption in his home country. 

But according to the spokesperson for the Polish prosecutor general, there is no precedent for an EU country granting political asylum to politicians from another member country. 

However, the minister heading Orbán’s office, Gergely Gulyás, insisted the decision is in line with Hungarian and EU regulations. 

“In [Romanowski’s] case, there is concrete evidence of a lack of a fair trial, as he was arrested this summer despite having immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,” Gulyás said in an interview with government-aligned newspaper Mandiner.

According to Gulyás, the Hungarian state “cannot have access to the proceedings of an authority in another country, nor can we comment on the merits of the accusation,” but it can grant political asylum if the person’s case is not judged impartially and free from political influence. 

“This risk exists today in Poland in general and in this specific case in particular, based on the procedure so far,” Gulyás added.

But Tusk insisted that the asylum grant won’t protect Romanowski.

“All those who think that they will be able to use these tricks and dodges and go unpunished are wrong. Here I can assure you that our state is strong and efficient enough to make sure that this type of situation has a good end,” he said.