Polish Foreign Ministry offers Hungary to leave EU and NATO after Orbán’s claims

Warsaw: Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, has expressed doubt concerning the necessity of Hungary’s membership in the EU and NATO following the claims by Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, against Poland.

Bartoszewski stressed that, unlike Orbán, Poland had not been doing business with Russia since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine “because it was an attack both on Poland, on the US, on the EU and NATO”.

He stated that Orbán’s speech had been commented on by the US Embassy in Budapest very negatively.

Quote: “I don’t really understand why Hungary wants to remain a member in the organisations it doesn’t like that much and which allegedly treats it that poorly. Why does he [Orbán – ed.] not just create an alliance with Putin and some authoritarian states of that type?

There is a principle that if you don’t want to be a member of some club, you can always leave. This is certainly an anti-European, anti-Ukrainian, anti-Polish policy of [Hungary – ed.].”

Bartoszewski noted that Hungary was also blocking €467 million from the European Peace Facility (EPF), allocated by the EU for Poland to compensate for the military equipment provided for Ukraine by Poland.

Earlier while giving a planned speech within the Tusványos Summer University in the Romanian resort town of Băile Tuşnad, Orbán claimed that the Poles “have the most hypocritical and sanctimonious policy in the whole Europe” as they allegedly “shamelessly keep doing business” with Russia.

The relations between Warsaw and Budapest have grown colder after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 due to different views concerning this invasion. However, Orbán has not openly criticised Poland before.