Hungary raises a dispute with Poland by granting asylum to a former minister

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

Marcin Romanowski, 48, faces 11 charges in Poland, including defrauding or attempting to defraud $40m (£32m; €39m) from a justice fund set up to help victims of crime when he served as deputy justice minister under the Law and Justice Act. the previous. – The government that she will head between 2019 and 2023.

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

“Tomorrow we will announce our decisions.”

The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had summoned Hungary's ambassador to the country and would ask the European Commission to initiate measures against Budapest if it failed to fulfill its obligations to the EU.

Mr. Romanowski was in charge of the Justice Fund under the previous government that lost power in the 2023 elections.

The audit found that only 40% of the funds went to victims of crime and the rehabilitation of former prisoners, and that contracts were issued at the discretion of the Minister without following due process.

Mr. Romanowski denies the accusations.

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

Governing officials have scoffed at this reasoning given that the PiS-led government in which Mr. Romanowski served was widely condemned by international judicial bodies, the European Commission and European courts for introducing reforms that politicized the judiciary.

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

As of Thursday evening, the 48-year-old opposition lawmaker had not been seen for nearly two weeks.

He has reportedly not used his phones or bank cards since December 6, and did not attend a court hearing three days later that remanded him in pre-trial detention.

On Thursday, a court in Warsaw issued a European arrest warrant based on information provided by prosecutors about his escape to a European Union country.

There was speculation that Mr Romanowski was hiding in Hungary.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday that the current Polish government treats Hungary as an enemy, and that he will provide asylum to anyone facing political persecution in Poland.

Orban and Poland's Law and Justice party share ideological goals despite their disagreement over the Russian invasion and war against Ukraine.

They broadly agree that what they see as a liberal elite in the EU is pushing Europe away from its Christian traditions and eroding the sovereignty of member states.

Mr Romanowski is said to be a member of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, which issued a denial earlier this week that the MP had been hidden by them.

In October 2022, he told a Polish Catholic radio station that the LGBT+ community is an “institutional aberration.”

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