Poland's President Secret Orban Visit Draws Government Fury

(MENAFN) Polish President Karol Nawrocki's closed-door meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on Monday drew sharp condemnation from Warsaw's pro-European government, which cautioned that the encounter risked fracturing EU cohesion and handing Moscow a political victory.

The two nationalist, Eurosceptic leaders convened without public fanfare — no joint statement was issued and no press conference was held following the talks, according to a Polish broadcaster.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk did not mince words in his assessment, denouncing the visit as "a fatal mistake and confirmation of a dangerous strategy to weaken the EU and strengthen Putin" — remarks that laid bare the deepening rift between Poland's presidency and its governing coalition.

Backlash had already begun building over the weekend when it emerged that Nawrocki planned to travel to the Hungarian capital on Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day, an occasion marking longstanding bilateral ties between the two nations.

Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski challenged the very logic of the trip, zeroing in on Orban's well-documented alignment with the Kremlin. "I'd like to know what Poland's interest is in supporting the most corrupt and pro-Putin politician in Europe," Sikorski said — a pointed reference to Orban's repeated obstruction of EU sanctions targeting Moscow.

Senior government figures further suggested the visit could be read as tacit encouragement for Orban's ruling Fidesz party ahead of Hungarian parliamentary elections due next month — though Nawrocki stopped short of any public endorsement during his time in Budapest.

Earlier on Monday, standing beside Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok on Polish soil, Nawrocki had taken care to distinguish his positions from those of the Hungarian premier. "For Poland, Vladimir Putin and Russia pose an existential threat," he declared. "Poles love Hungarians and hate Vladimir Putin, who is a war criminal and nothing more."

The statement appeared crafted to insulate Nawrocki from accusations of mirroring Orban's far softer line toward the Kremlin. Yet the Polish president also acknowledged common ground with Budapest on certain fronts, citing shared resistance to specific EU climate and migration frameworks.

The Warsaw-Budapest relationship — once one of Central Europe's most dependable political partnerships — has deteriorated significantly since Russia's full-scale assault on Ukraine in 2022. Poland has emerged as among Kyiv's most steadfast defenders, while Hungary has repeatedly found itself at odds with Brussels over its refusal to tighten the economic squeeze on Moscow.

Nawrocki himself had previously walked back a planned encounter with Orban last year, cancelling after the Hungarian leader made a controversial trip to Moscow. He maintains close ideological ties to the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which held power in Poland from 2015 to 2023 and cultivated a strong alliance with Fidesz — a bond that frayed after the Ukraine invasion but now shows tentative signs of renewal.

Monday's visit throws into sharp relief the fault lines running through Polish leadership: a government committed to deepening its standing in Brussels squaring off against a presidency that remains drawn toward conservative, sovereignty-minded partners elsewhere in the bloc.

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