Hungary gave rise to dispute with Poland by giving asylum to former minister

Poland has accused Hungary of acting in a hostile manner by granting political asylum to a former Polish deputy justice minister accused of betraying the state.

Marcin Romanowski, 48, faces 11 charges in Poland, including embezzling or attempting to embezzle $40 million (£32 million; €39 million) from a justice fund set up to help victims of crime. He previously served as Deputy Justice Minister under Law and Justice. -Leaded the government between 2019 and 2023.

“We consider the decision of the government of Viktor Orbán to grant political asylum to M. Romanowski, suspected of criminal offenses and wanted under a European arrest warrant, an act hostile to the principles of the Republic of Poland and the European Union.” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on Thursday night.

“Tomorrow we will announce our decisions.”

On Friday, the Foreign Ministry said it was summoning Hungary’s ambassador to the country and would request the European Commission to launch proceedings against Budapest if it fails to meet its EU obligations.

Mr Romanowski was responsible for the Justice Fund under the previous government, which lost power in the 2023 election.

An audit found that only 40% of funding resources went to crime victims and former prisoner rehabilitation, and contracts were issued at the discretion of the minister without a proper competitive process.

Mr. Romanowski denies the allegations.

He fled to Hungary, saying he would not get a fair trial in his homeland due to the politicization of prosecutors and judges under Poland’s current pro-EU coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Such reasoning was ridiculed by governing officials, as the Law and Justice-led government of Mr. Romanowski was widely condemned by international judicial bodies, the European Commission and the European courts for introducing reforms that politicized the judiciary. .

Mr Tusk’s government is trying to undo that reform as it has created a two-tier judicial system of judges appointed under Law and Justice and older judges, some of whom do not recognize new judges because they consider their appointments illegal. Admit it.

As of Thursday night, the 48-year-old opposition MP had not been seen for almost two weeks.

He reportedly had not used his phone or bank card since 6 December and failed to attend a court hearing three days later, which ruled to remand him in pre-trial detention.

On Thursday, a European arrest warrant was issued by a Warsaw court acting on information from prosecutors that he had fled to the EU country.

There was speculation that Mr. Romanowski was hiding in Hungary.

On Thursday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the current Polish government was treating Hungary like an enemy and that he would grant asylum to anyone facing political persecution in Poland.

Mr Orban and Poland’s Law and Justice party have similar ideological goals, even though they diverged because of Russia’s aggression and war against Ukraine.

They broadly agree that what they consider the liberal EU-elite is moving Europe away from its Christian traditions and eroding the sovereignty of member states.

Mr Romanowski is reportedly a member of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, which issued a denial earlier this week that the MP was being covered up by them.

In October 2022, he told a Polish Catholic radio station that LGBT+ was an “institutionalized deviance”.

A year later, after a 16-year-old boy was beaten to death by teenagers, he also advocated the death penalty for minors.