Polish President Karol Nawrocki and the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk have clashed over Poland’s head of state visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The opposition Conservatives (PiS) aligned President Nawrocki met Orbán in Budapest on March 23 as the two countries marked their annual Friendship Day for a meeting that had been delayed since December of last year.
Back in December, Nawrocki cancelled a meeting with Orbán as a result of the Hungarian PM’s visit to see Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Poland and Hungary are in disagreement over the war in Ukraine with the Poles backing Ukraine and pressing for ever greater sanctions on the Moscow government whereas Orbán has been attempting to work for deescalation of the conflict and has been critical of the Ukrainian government.
The meeting between Nawrocki and Orbán was closed to the press with no press conference in its aftermath and the Polish President took care before the meeting to repeat his view that “Putin is a war criminal” and to state on social media that “Poles love Hungarians but hate Putin.”
Nawrocki, a former head of Poland’s National Institute of Remembrance, a body set up to investigate second world war and communist period crimes, is on Russia’s wanted list for his alleged role in the taking down of monuments honouring the USSR and the Red Army in Poland.
The war in Ukraine had already cooled relations between the last PiS government and Hungary, although Orbán and PiS continued to see eye to eye on the protection of national sovereignty in the EU and are both allied to US President Donald Trump.
Polish-Hungarian relations deteriorated markedly after the arrival of the Tusk government in late 2023 with Hungary blocking Poland from receiving compensatory EU funds for supporting Ukraine and with a clash over the Hungarian authorities granting asylum to two opposition Polish politicians who were indicted for alleged abuse of power.
Nawrocki told reporters that while Poland and Hungary share common ground on some issues within the European Union, including opposition to certain climate, migration and trade policies, they differ on others, “particularly regarding Russia”.
Despite Nawrocki having made clear that he disagreed with Orbán over Putin, PM Tusk’s government attacked Nawrocki for making the trip to Budapest at all.
The government has alleged that Nawrocki was supporting Orbán just days before the Hungarian general election in which Orbán is facing a strong challenge from the opposition Tisza party led by Peter Magyar and after stories emerged alleging that Hungary and Russia had been sharing information about EU summits.
Over the weekend, after it emerged that Nawrocki would visit Orbán on Monday, his decision was condemned by Tusk who called it a “fatal mistake and confirmation of a dangerous strategy to weaken the EU and strengthen Putin”.
Tusk also falsely claimed that Nawrocki would appear at a summit of Orbán’s European far-right allies, such as Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini, that was taking place on the day of the President’s visit.
In fact during his trip to Budapest Nawrocki did not make any public endorsement of Orbán and did not participate in any events at which such endorsements were made. Orbán back in the spring of 2025 had publicly backed Nawrocki during the Polish presidential election.
Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski criticised Nawrocki for supporting a leader who has blocked EU sanctions on Russia and whose campaign is being allegedly assisted by Russian agents.
“I’d like to know what Poland’s interest is in supporting the most corrupt and pro-Putin politician in Europe,” asked Sikorski.
The Hungarian government denies any collusion with Russia as regards sharing information about EU meetings and Brussels Signal has reported allegations that it was the Tusk government’s secret services which planted stories about Russia attempting to help Orán in his re-election bid.
