Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has slammed the Polish Government for pursuing a what he called a political vendetta and the European Commission for remaining silent on the issue.
In a show of support for Poland’s opposition Conservatives (PiS), Orbán met with Zbigniew Ziobro, the former justice minister in the previous PiS government, who has been accused of alleged abuse of power.
Ziobro is facing the removal of his parliamentary immunity so he can be detained on 26 charges. They include allegedly being the head of “an organised criminal group” and “deriving personal and political gain” from the Justice Fund. That is administered by the ministry of justice, which he was in charge of during the lifetime of the PiS government.
Orbán met Ziobro in Budapest and posted a photo of them both on X yesterday. In the post, he slammed the Polish Government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk for pursuing what he called a “political witch hunt” and the European Union for ignoring the issue.
“Justice for Poland! The Polish right achieved a tremendous victory in the presidential election. Since then, the pro-Brussels Polish government has launched a political witch hunt against them,” Orbán wrote.
“Today, I met with former minister of justice Zbigniew Ziobro in Budapest. The Polish Government is trying to have him arrested. All this in the heart of Europe, while Brussels stays silent. These are the absurd times we are living in,” he added.
🇵🇱 Justice for Poland! The Polish right achieved a tremendous victory in the presidential election. Since then, the pro-Brusselian Polish government has launched a political witch hunt against them.
Today, I met with former Minister of Justice @ZiobroPL in Budapest. The Polish… pic.twitter.com/U5WtAGyhhW
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) October 30, 2025
Tusk reacted to Orbán’s post immediately, saying that Ziobro will “either face arrest or end up in Budapest”.
He was alluding to the fact that Ziobro’s deputy, PiS MP Marcin Romanowski has received asylum in Hungary after being charged with similar alleged offences.
The Hungarian authorities have argued that they granted the asylum, despite Poland issuing an international arrest warrant, because it was unlikely Romanowski would face a fair trial in his home country. That lead the Tusk government to withdraw Poland’s ambassador to Hungary in protest.
After the granting of asylum to Romanowski, Orbán went on the record saying that, given Tusk’s attitude on targeting PiS officials, he would not be surprised if the Romanowsk was not the only Polish politician granted asylum in Budapest.
Ziobro’s indictments, which could see him facing jail terms of up to 25 years, mark a further escalation in efforts by the current centre-left coalition Tusk government to hold to account former PiS officials for alleged crimes.
The Justice Fund is meant to be used to support victims of crime and certain other initiatives to reduce crime or rehabilitate criminals.
The public prosecutors have requested that, after the lifting of his immunity, Ziobro be taken into pretrial detention. That, they said, was because there was “a justified fear of failure to appear for scheduled proceedings, hiding or fleeing, and of unlawfully obstructing proceedings by destroying original documentation”.
Ziobro has been accused of using the fund for political purposes, in one case for allegedly unlawfully financing the purchase of Pegasus spyware for Poland’s anti-corruption agency (CBA).
The former justice minister has already testified before a parliamentary investigative committee on the purchase and use of the Pegasus. During that hearing, he claimed the software helped prosecutors uncover corruption involving senior Civic Coalition politicians.
Prosecutors allege Ziobro used the fund “to obtain financial benefits for other people and for personal and political benefits, jointly and in agreement with identified persons, including his deputies in an organised criminal group which he founded and led”.
Since Ziobro has not been a minister for two years now and is suffering from cancer of the oesophagus, this move to put him in detention is seen as an attempt to punish him in advance of a trial.
“Preventative detentions” have often led to long terms of incarceration without trial and been criticised by international bodies, including the European Commission’s annual rule of law reports.
Ziobro was justice minister for the whole of PiS’ last term in office (2015-2023) and had also served in that capacity in a previous PiS government between 2005 and 2007. That made him the longest serving justice minister since Poland returned to democracy in 1989.
He was the architect of highly contested judicial reforms, both in Poland and in the EU, that saw the overhaul of the membership of top courts. One reform introduced random assigning of cases to judges in the common courts designed to reduce the power of the heads of those courts.
As a sitting MP, Ziobro enjoys legal immunity unless a majority of fellow MPs vote to lift it. This is more than likely since the government has a majority in parliament and has already granted all requests for former PiS officials to face charges.
