A diplomatic standoff has broken out between Poland and Hungary after the Hungarian government granted political asylum yesterday to a former Polish deputy minister for justice.
Marcin Romanowski, a Polish member of parliament for the opposition Law and Justice party, is under investigation in Poland for the alleged misuse of public funds when he was deputy minister for justice for the previous Law and Justice government between 2019 and 2023.
Polish authorities issued an arrest warrant earlier this month for Mr Romanowski who faces 11 charges of misusing public funds from the justice ministry, which public prosecutors say amounted to the misuse of 107m Polish zloty (€25m), and an attempt to misuse a further 58m Polish zloty (€13m).
Polish police said that they were aware that Mr Romanowski was in Hungary and yesterday a court in Warsaw issued a European arrest warrant for him.
Hungary's decision to grant Mr Romanowski's request for political asylum has been met with criticism from senior Polish government officials.
This morning, Hungary’s ambassador to Poland was summoned to the Polish ministry of foreign affairs in Warsaw and issued with a protest note.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski last night took to social media platform X to post the following:
"We consider the decision of Viktor Orban's government to grant political asylum to M. Romanowski, a suspect in criminal offences and wanted under a European Arrest Warrant, to be an act hostile to the Republic of Poland and the principles of the European Union. Tomorrow we will announce our decisions".
Speaking at a press conference this morning, Polish justice minister Adam Bodnar said that Hungary has "violated the unity of member states" and said that the European arrest warrant for Mr Romanowski was still in force.
"Because of the Hungarian asylum, we will have to involve the European Union and the Council of Europe. We cannot afford that people suspected of committing such serious crimes are running away from justice," said Mr Bodnar.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also weighed in this morning on the stand-off, calling it a "sad end" to Hungary's Presidency of the Council of the EU, which Poland takes over on 1 January.
Gergely Gulyás, the head of Hungary's Prime Minister's office, yesterday confirmed in an interview with Hungarian media outlet Mandiner that Mr Romanowski had applied for political asylum in Hungary and that he received it "in accordance with Hungarian and EU legislation".
He criticised the Polish government for using "criminal law against political rivals with disregard for immunity or presidential pardons".
Mr Romanowski's populist party, Law and Justice, governed Poland between 2015 and 2023 and regularly clashed with the EU over the rule-of-law and its reforms to limit the independence of the Polish judiciary.
During its time in government, Law and Justice developed close ties with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz party.
Speaking last night to Polish news portal, wPolsce24, Mr Romanowski said that he would only return to Poland to explain the matter before "non-partisan bodies of the judiciary", which he believed was not the situation in Poland at present.
"In Poland, we are dealing with a systemic violation of the rule-of-law and a situation in which representatives of opposition parties have no chance of a fair trial," he said.
A broad coalition of pro-EU political parties, led by Mr Tusk, formed Poland's current government a year ago this month, and has focused on repairing Poland's relations with EU institutions and reversing rule-of-law changes enacted during the Law and Justice years.
