Russia’s war in Ukraine has caused the Polish and Hungarian governments, previously close allies, to take divergent paths, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has declared in response to remarks by his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán suggesting that the two sides actually “want exactly the same thing”.
Whereas Warsaw has been one of Kyiv’s strongest allies and advocates, providing large amounts of military and humanitarian aid and calling for tougher sanctions on Russia, Budapest has sought to maintain good relations with Moscow and has opposed some sanctions.
During a visit to Romania last week, Orbán admitted that the war had “shaken Polish-Hungarian cooperation, which was [previously] the axis of cooperation in the Visegrad Group”, a Central European alliance that also includes the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The war has soured Poland's relations with Hungary but pushed it closer than ever to the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This offers an opportunity to realign relations in Central Europe and strengthen the region's international role, writes @Pawel_Musialek https://t.co/WEsBBjjXov
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 19, 2022
However, Orbán suggested that this dispute was unnecessary. “We all want exactly the same thing,” he argued, quoted by Polish news service Gazeta.pl. “Poles and Hungarians don’t want Russia to come closer, they want Ukraine’s sovereignty to be preserved, and they want democracy for Ukraine.”
“The problem is in the heart”, not the head, suggested Orbán. “We Hungarians perceive this as a war between two Slavic nations, from which we want to stay away. But Poles see it as a war in which they are also involved: it is their war and they are almost fighting in it.”
“And because it is a matter of the heart, we cannot reach an agreement on this matter, but we must use our intellect to save everything we can from the Polish-Hungarian friendship and strategic alliance for the post-war period,” he added.
Speaking yesterday, Morawiecki said that he “confirms the words of Prime Minister Orbán that the paths of Poland and Hungary have diverged”.
However, the Polish prime minister also clarified that “Poland is not taking part in the war in Ukraine”, which is “being fought by Ukrainians”. Poland has supplied weapons, but so has the US, UK and “many other places”, noted Morawiecki.
Orbán’s Fidesz party and Morawiecki’s Law and Justice (PiS) have long been close allies, sharing both a similar national-conservative ideology and also supporting one another in their respective clashes with Brussels over issues including the rule of law and refugee relocation quotas.
However, the two parties have always held differing positions on Russia, which have been brought to the fore during the war in Ukraine. In April, PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński warned that his party “cannot continue to cooperate [with Fidesz] as we have so far if it continues like this”.
Main image credit: KPRM (under public domain)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
