Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has offered political asylum to Polish opposition Conservative (PiS) MP Marcin Romanowski. The PM said that he would offer such sanctuary to all Polish opposition members who felt themselves unjustly persecuted by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centre-left government.
Orban’s decision was disclosed to the media by Romanowski’s attorney Bartosz Lewandowski. He has been representing Romanowski in a case which has seen his client accused of embezzling state funds and participating in an “organised crime group”.
“The Hungarian government has accepted Marcin Romanowski’s asylum request as a result of actions taken by the Polish government and its prosecutors which were endangering his rights and freedoms”, Lewandowski wrote on platform X on December 19.
He added that “this is the first case of a Polish politician being granted international protection in another country since Poland regained independence in 1989.”
Commenting the decision, Balazs Orban, a key aide to the Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, wrote on platform X that Romanowski had been arrested in Poland in the summer despite of him being covered by Council of Europe immunity, even though he was later freed by the courts.
‼️Hungary grants Poland’s former Deputy Justice Minister, Marcin Romanowski, political asylum.
The actions of Donald Tusk's liberal government, which engages in lawfare against its opponents, is cause for grave concern about rule of law in Poland. Marcin Romanowski was arrested…
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) December 19, 2024
Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister in the last PiS government, had his Polish parliamentary immunity removed by Tusk’s parliamentary majority. He disappeared as a Polish court decided on December 9 that he should be detained for three months to stop the opposition MP perverting the course of justice.
Following his disappearance the prosecutors obtained an international warrant for his arrest from a Polish court on December 18.
Romanowski, interviewed by Polish independent television wPolsce24 on December 19, said that he claimed political asylum so that he could speak publicly about both his own plight and the situation in Poland.
In his asylum application he claimed that the prosecution service in Poland had been illegally seized by the current government and that courts were under pressure to pursue political opponents of the present government.
“Representatives of opposition parties cannot be guaranteed a fair trial in current circumstances”, Romanowski said adding that, “I want to stand before independent prosecutors and judiciary to respond to the charges levelled against me.”
He further claimed that some of the evidence used against him had been fabricated in order to claim that he had acted without authorisation with regard to his decisions on the allocation of public funds.
Reacting to Hungary’s decision to grant Romanowski asylum, Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski called it an “action that is hostile towards Poland and to the values of the EU” and said Poland would soon be announcing what further action it planned to take.
However, Wiesław Szczepański, deputy interior minister, told commercial television news channel TVN24 that Poland would seek assistance from the European Commission and that the result was likely to be legal action against Hungary in the ECJ. This could lead to Hungary being heavily fined for “rule of law violations” for its refusal to hand over Romanowski to the Polish authorities.
Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, interviewed by news portal mandiner.hu on December 19 said that Polish-Hungarian relations are “at a low ebb” since “Polish patriots have been replaced by a rainbow coalition which regards us Hungarian patriots as enemies.”
He slammed the Tusk government for violating the rule of law.
“Polish liberals have invented a new concept for the rule of law which is based on using it to destroy political opponents,” he said.
When asked whether Hungary would be willing to receive Polish political refugees Orbán confirmed.
“We will offer shelter to all who are facing political persecution in their own country”, he said.
