Poland suggests Hungary exit EU and NATO

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Teofil Bartoszewski has suggested that Hungary should leave the European Union. This came after anti-Polish statements made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

On July 27, during a speech at the Tusványos Summer University in the Romanian resort town of Băile Tușnad, Orbán claimed that Poles are “pursuing the most hypocritical and puritanical policy in all of Europe,” accusing them of “shamelessly doing business” with Russia.

“Europe has stopped defending its own interests… Everything Europe does today is to unconditionally follow the pro-democracy foreign policy of the United States… even at the cost of self-destruction,” said the Hungarian PM.

Orbán also accused Poland of altering the balance of power in Europe by weakening the Berlin-Paris axis in favor of a new configuration: London, Warsaw, Kyiv, the Baltic countries, and Scandinavia. This, he claimed, was meant to weaken the Visegrád Group, which, according to Orbán, was supposed to be based on recognizing a strong Germany and Russia to create a third important power. Orbán added that this was supposed to be the realization of “Poland’s old plan.”

Furthermore, Orbán stated in his speech that Ukraine will not become a NATO or EU member and spoke about the “decline of Europe.”

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Orbán’s comments. “I don’t quite understand why Hungary wants to remain a member of organizations they dislike and which evidently treat them poorly. Why doesn’t [Orbán] create an alliance with Putin and some authoritarian states of that type? If you don’t want to be a member of a club, you can always leave. Undoubtedly, this is now an anti-European, anti-Ukrainian, and anti-Polish policy,” Bartoszewski said.

The Polish Deputy Foreign Minister also reminded that Orbán is blocking the transfer of 2 billion zloty ($0.5 billion) to Poland by the EU as compensation for military equipment provided by Warsaw to Ukraine. “We are not doing business with Russia, unlike Prime Minister Orbán, who is on the margins of the international community—both in the EU and NATO,” Bartoszewski responded.

Additionally, Hungary is blocking 6.5 billion euros in EU military aid to Ukraine. This includes three tranches of €500 million each from the European Peace Facility and five billion euros from a new aid fund for Ukraine recently established within the EPF.