Poland Pulls Hungarian Envoy From Guest List Over Fugitive Case
(Bloomberg) -- Poland withdrew an invitation for Hungary’s ambassador to a European Union-themed gala after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government granted asylum to a fugitive Polish opposition lawmaker.
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The snub widens a rift between two EU countries that were ideologically aligned under Poland’s previous nationalist government. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who took office after Poland’s election in 2023, has become one of Orban’s fiercest critics.
All EU ambassadors were initially invited to the gala at Warsaw’s Grand Theater marking the start of Poland’s six-month EU presidency, but Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski sent a note to Hungary’s envoy saying he isn’t welcome, Polish Deputy Minister for European Affairs Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told broadcaster TVP Info.
“Hungary has placed itself on the margins of European politics,” she said.
Poland has previously protested Hungary’s decision to offer political asylum to former Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted on Polish fraud charges. A court investigating mismanagement at a fund that compensates victims of the judicial system has issued a warrant for his arrest.
Sikorski has called Hungary’s asylum decision “a hostile act” against a country that’s seeking to bring to justice former officials for alleged corruption and fraud. Orban has said Hungary’s decision wasn’t politically motivated.
“There are two terms competing with each other to describe the decision of the Polish foreign minister: pathetic and childish,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told the HGV news site.
--With assistance from Marton Kasnyik.
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