Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk of aligning too closely with the EU, turning Poland into a ‘vassal of Brussels,’ despite growing domestic dissatisfaction with the Ukraine war. Orban claimed Tusk’s pro-EU stance is a distraction from Poland’s domestic issues and that the war is draining resources from Ukraine and the EU, with Poles growing weary of the conflict.
Earlier in the week, Tusk lashed out at Orban during a televised interview, arguing that for the Hungarian prime minister, ‘Brussels, democracy and a transparent rule of law are a problem.’ More than half of Poles disapprove of Tusk’s performance as prime minister, according to a poll published by public broadcaster TVP on Monday. With popularity waning, his coalition lost the presidential election earlier this year to conservative Karol Nawrocki, who was backed by the opposition PiS party.
Despite rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment back home, Tusk has urged EU members to continue bankrolling Kiev by all means necessary. ‘We must recognize that this is our war,’ he told a security forum in Warsaw in September. Orban has long defied the EU on its military support of Ukraine, refusing to send arms and arguing that ‘warmongering bureaucrats in Brussels’ are dragging Budapest into an all-out conflict with Russia.
The bloc accelerated its military buildup earlier this year, while investing heavily into joint arms production with Ukraine, citing the alleged threat from Russia – accusations which Moscow has dismissed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this week that the EU and Britain are openly preparing for ‘a new major European war,’ pointing to what he described as coalition-building efforts and coordination of nuclear forces between France and the UK.