Hungary Prime Minister Péter Magyar visits Poland to reset ties

Péter Magyar used his first trip abroad as Hungary’s new prime minister to send an unmistakable signal: Budapest wants a fresh start with Warsaw.

Mr Magyar met Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on the opening day of a two-day visit, a trip that underscores a broader effort to repair ties between the two capitals after years of friction under former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. Relations worsened sharply in the final stretch of Mr Orbán’s rule, especially after Hungary granted asylum to a former Polish justice minister and his deputy, who are wanted by Polish courts over alleged misuse of public money.

Mr Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party swept to a landslide win in Hungary’s parliamentary election in April, bringing to an end 16 years of government by Mr Orbán’s eurosceptic Fidesz party.

Economic cooperation, along with defence and security, featured prominently in talks between the Polish and Hungarian leaders this morning.

Speaking beside Mr Magyar at a press conference in Warsaw, Mr Tusk said the two governments would work to forge a common European approach to Ukraine.

The leaders focused in part on Ukraine’s drive to join the European Union

That marks a notable shift from the stance of the previous Fidesz administration, which opposed Ukraine’s bid to enter the bloc. Even so, Hungarian and Ukrainian officials held talks this morning centred on protecting the language rights of the Hungarian minority in western Ukraine and on Kyiv’s EU ambitions.

For Budapest, progress on those language protections could significantly improve the chances of backing Ukraine’s path toward membership.

Still, during Hungary’s election campaign, Tisza promised to put the issue to a referendum.

Mr Magyar said he could meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky next month.

He also said he intends to convene a meeting of Visegrad 4 leaders in Budapest next month, reviving the informal political grouping of Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia.

That alliance has lost much of its momentum over the past three years as the once-close relationship between Warsaw and Budapest frayed.

Mr Magyar and Mr Tusk both head parties aligned with the centre-right European Peoples’ Party, share broadly pro-EU positions and favour strict immigration controls.

“Both capitals are under the same umbrella, so it’s easier to align and build larger influence,” Wojciech Przybylski, a Polish geopolitical analyst, told RTÉ News.

On the campaign trail, Mr Magyar repeatedly pointed to the Tusk government’s success in unlocking frozen EU cohesion funds after taking office in December 2023.

He is now pursuing a similar goal in Hungary, seeking to release about €18bn in EU money that remains blocked because of concerns over the former Fidesz government’s retreat from the bloc’s rule-of-law standards.

Read more:Why EU funding was the decisive factor in Hungary’s election

Mr Przybylski, who is editor in chief of the Warsaw-based think tank Visegrad Insight, said the visit goes beyond the question of EU funding and is also about “coordination between the two capitals on European and EU policy”.

Mr Magyar arrived with a senior delegation that includes Hungary’s new foreign minister Anita Orbán, who is not related to the former prime minister, as well as the ministers responsible for defence, the economy and energy, and transport for intergovernmental meetings with Polish counterparts.

His schedule began yesterday evening in the southern Polish city of Kraków, where he met Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, before holding talks this morning in Warsaw with Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

The Hungarian prime minister will wrap up the visit this evening in the northern port city of Gdańsk, where he is due to meet former Polish President Lech Wałęsa, the Solidarity trade union leader whose mass movement in the 1980s helped bring Communist rule in Poland to an end in 1989.

According to a Reuters report, Poland is offering Hungary access to LNG imports from a new terminal in Gdańsk that is scheduled to begin operating in 2028.

Mr Magyar has said Hungary aims to end its reliance on Russian energy imports entirely by 2035.

For the Polish and Hungarian governments, energy cooperation is “the lowest hanging fruit”, Mr Przybylski said.

“It’s something Hungary needs. It’s something that Poland offers, and it also builds into the narrative that Poland wants to see Hungary go north, aligning with the Polish direction,” he added.