Hungary's Orbán says Poland's centre-right government was installed by the EU

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suggested Friday that Poland's government and its prime minister, Donald Tusk, be included by the European Union as part of a plot to oust the country's former right-wing leadership.

Orbán did not provide evidence to back up his claims about the Polish government, which was elected in 2023 with a record high voter turnout of nearly 74%.

The comments came two days after Orbán, a nationalist who has taken an anti-EU stance, told supporters in a speech that the bloc wanted to topple his government and install a puppet regime in Hungary.

Speaking to national radio on Friday, Orbán lashed out at the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the leader of the main political party, the president of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, saying that they want to replace him with a government as he said in Poland. in 2023, when the Tusk-led coalition defeated the ruling Law and Justice party in the general election.

“It's not even a secret conspiracy against Hungary, it's an openly represented, declared plan,” Orbán said of the alleged plot against him, without providing evidence. “The same thing happened in Poland. The Poles are also going their own way, adopting an independent Polish policy on immigration, gender and the economy.”

Von der Leyen and Weber, he continued, “did their best and publicly announced that the conservative Polish government must go and be replaced by a new one.” This is how our friend Tusk became prime minister in Poland. A similar situation is now happening in the case of Hungary.”

Orbán is often at odds with the EU, which has withheld billions in financial aid from Hungary for alleged violations of the rule of law and democratic standards. Poland's previous nationalist government also spent years at odds with the EU over a lack of democracy.

In response, Orbán has taken an anti-bloc approach, which Hungary joined in 2004, and has mobilized pro-euro groups across the EU to create a far-right political force in the bloc's legislature. He also brought Hungary closer to autocracies like Russia and China, seeking foreign investment and loans from Moscow and Beijing as EU funds dried up under his leadership.

Tusk's government wants to restore Poland's democratic institutions that it sees as dismantled under the previous Orbán coalition government, but has maintained some policies such as a tough stance on illegal immigration.

Orbán, who faces a general election in early 2026, compared the EU to the former Soviet Union in a debate on Friday.

“They will fix this thing. They need a puppet government. Let's be clear, all kingdoms are like that. The Soviets were like that, weren't they?” he said about the EU.

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Monika Scislowska contributed from Warsaw.