Foreign ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór said the Hungarian envoy arrived at the ministry on Friday afternoon and was formally presented with Poland’s objections to actions and statements by Hungarian officials that Warsaw says violate the EU’s principle of loyal cooperation.
Wewiór said Poland has still not received official information from Hungary on the identities of the two additional Polish citizens who have been granted asylum.
Just before Christmas, Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the EU sent a letter to the diplomatic missions of all EU member states saying that Hungary had granted asylum to two Polish nationals, Polish media reported, citing investigative outlet VSquare.
“We still have not received clarification from the Hungarian side as to who has been granted" asylum, Wewiór said on Friday.
In December 2024, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski recalled Poland’s ambassador to Hungary for indefinite consultations after Budapest granted asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a lawmaker from the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and a former deputy justice minister.
Romanowski is a suspect in an investigation into alleged abuses of Poland’s Justice Fund under the previous government, which lost power in 2023.
Prosecutors accuse him of 19 crimes, including participation in an organized criminal group and rigging grant competitions.
A Warsaw court issued a European arrest warrant for Romanowski in December 2024, later annulled on procedural grounds.
Justice Minister and Prosecutor-General Waldemar Żurek has since requested a new warrant, according to Polish state news agency PAP.
Hungarian authorities have not disclosed the names of the two additional asylum recipients.
Poland is currently represented in Hungary by a chargé d’affaires after Ambassador Sebastian Kęciek ended his posting in July last year.
The dispute comes as another former senior PiS figure, ex-justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, has been staying in Hungary together with his wife, according to reports.
In November, Poland’s parliament lifted Ziobro’s immunity and approved his potential pre-trial detention in connection with an investigation into alleged large-scale fraud involving the Justice Fund.
Prosecutors accuse Ziobro of committing 26 crimes, including overseeing the manipulation of multimillion-euro grant competitions to benefit political allies and associates. Ziobro has denied any wrongdoing.
Polish authorities issued an order in November to detain Ziobro and bring him in for questioning, but it later emerged that he was abroad, including in Budapest and Brussels.
A court postponed a decision on his possible pre-trial detention until January 15.
During his stay in Hungary, Ziobro met with Prime Minister Viktor Orban but has not declared whether he intends to seek political asylum or return to Poland.
In December, he said he would return only if judicial and prosecutorial changes demanded by him were implemented.
Żurek warned in December that if Hungary were to grant Ziobro asylum, Poland would seek to challenge such a decision before European courts.
Hungary's Orban was an ally of Poland’s government when the PiS party was in power. However, his decision to maintain close ties with Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine strained relations with Warsaw, even before PiS left office.
Tensions have deepened since a pro-European coalition led by centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk took power in Poland in 2023.
Tusk’s government has pledged to hold PiS figures accused of wrongdoing to account, while Budapest says Warsaw is persecuting political opponents, the Reuters news agency reported.
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Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters