Poland seeks to mend relations with Hungary strained by Russia’s war in Ukraine

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has announced that he will seek to repair relations with Hungary, which have been strained by the two countries’ very different responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Morawiecki has renewed his calls for Europe to free itself from Russian energy dependence and has accused the domestic Polish opposition of “keeping their fingers crossed” for “poverty and misfortunate for their compatriots” that they can cynically exploit.

“The attitude to the war significantly divides the Visegrad Group,” Morawiecki told news weekly Sieci, referring to the alliance of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, also often known as the V4.

Hungary’s tepid support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion and its continued ties with Moscow have led the other members of the group to distance themselves from Budapest. In July, Morawiecki declared that “the paths of Poland and Hungary have diverged”.

However, in his new interview with Sieci, Morawiecki said that, while “respecting the sensitivity of our Ukrainian friends, I am going to try to work out a formula in which we will be able to return to both cooperation within the V4 and to joint activities with Hungary in those areas where we share values ​​and interests”.

“I think that, over time, all the other things in which we showed solidarity, understanding and support will bind us back together,” added Morawiecki. “I would like that very much…Also, Poles are probably more ready for it today than in March or April.”

He said that the value of the Visegrad Group lies in the fact that “in this case one plus one plus one plus one equals not four, but seven or eight. That is why our group persists, despite different governments – sometimes very different – in individual countries”.

In the past, Poland and Hungary’s ruling parties have often supported one another in their respective conflicts with Brussels. Warsaw has recently again become embroiled in a dispute with the European Commission over the release of funds frozen over rule-of-law concerns.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Morawiecki criticised Europe for “falling into energy dependence on Russia”. Countries “need to understand that [either] we will free ourselves from it or, like a scared dog, we will lie on our back and get cheap gas, but in a few years pay a very high price for it”.

Hungary is one of the EU countries that remains most reliant on Russian energy. Last week, its government signed a new deal with Russia for additional gas supplies. It also approved the construction of two new nuclear reactors by Russia’s Rusatom.

Morawiecki also told Sieci that “Putin wants to defeat the pro-Polish camp” currently in power in Poland and replace it with the current opposition.

“There is no other opposition in Europe that sees the possibility of victory only in the misfortune of its compatriots, in poverty of the country, in a catastrophe, that is cynically keeping their fingers crossed for this [to happen],” declared the prime minister.

In recent weeks, figures from Poland’s ruling camp have repeatedly accused the opposition of being part of a “Russian-German plan” to oust the current government and replace it with a “colonial” one led by opposition leader Donald Tusk.

Daniel Tilles

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.