Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban. Brussels, 20 March 2019
Hungary has provoked a serious diplomatic conflict with Poland by announcing the granting of political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a former Polish deputy minister of justice. Romanowski accuses the current Polish government of political persecution. Warsaw called the decision a “hostile act”, Reuters reports .
The Hungarian prime minister’s spokesman, Gergely Gulyás, said that the Polish government’s actions were aimed at persecuting political opponents and noted that the granting of asylum was in line with Hungarian and EU law.
“The Polish government, ignoring the ruling of the Constitutional Court, is using criminal law as a weapon against its opponents,” Guliasz said.
Romanovsky, who was detained in July as part of an investigation into the misuse of public funds, claims that the charges against him are politically motivated. A court in Warsaw issued a European arrest warrant for him, but Hungary decided to grant him asylum.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called the decision a “hostile act against Poland and the principles of the EU”. Warsaw has summoned the Hungarian ambassador to protest officially and threatens to appeal to the European Commission if Budapest does not fulfil its European obligations.
This situation has further exacerbated tensions between the governments of Donald Tusk and Viktor Orban, which already have disagreements over the war in Ukraine, the rule of law and cooperation with Russia.
