Hungary sparks row with Poland by granting asylum to ex-minister

Poland has accused Hungary of acting 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 $40 million (£32 million; €39 million) from a legal fund intended to help victims of crime when he was Deputy Minister of Justice under the previous Law and Justice project. government led between 2019 and 2023.

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

“Tomorrow we will announce our decisions.”

On Friday, the Foreign Ministry announced it would summon Hungary's ambassador to the country and ask the European Commission to initiate 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 elections.

An audit found that only 40% of the funds' resources were earmarked for the reintegration of victims of crime and former prisoners, and that contracts were awarded at the discretion of the minister without a due competitive process.

Mr. Romanowski denies the accusations.

He fled to Hungary, claiming he would not receive a fair trial in his home country due to the politicization of prosecutors and judges under the current pro-EU coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Such reasoning has been ridiculed by government officials, given that the Law and Justice-led government in which Mr Romanowski served has been widely condemned by international judicial bodies, the European Commission and European courts for introducing reform who politicized the justice system.

Mr. Tusk's government is trying to reverse this reform because it has created a two-tiered justice system, made up of judges appointed under law and justice and older judges, some of whom do not recognize new ones. judges because they consider their appointment illegal.

Law and Justice and Mr. Romanowski have accused the current government of making illegal judicial appointments in an attempt to undo this reform.

Until Thursday evening, the 48-year-old opposition MP had not been seen for almost two weeks.

He is said to have not used his phone or bank card since December 6 and failed to appear three days later at the court hearing which ruled that he should be remanded in custody before his trial.

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

There was speculation that Mr Romanowski was hiding in Hungary.

On Thursday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the current Polish government treats Hungary like an enemy and will offer refuge to anyone facing political persecution in Poland.

Mr. Orban and Poland's Law and Justice party share ideological goals, although they have fallen out over the Russian invasion and war against Ukraine.

They largely agree that what they see as a liberal European elite is moving Europe away from its Christian traditions and eroding the sovereignty of member states.

Mr Romanowski is believed to be a member of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, which denied earlier this week that the MP was being hidden by them.

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

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