The Polish leader is toeing the EU line despite mounting domestic discontent, according to Hungary’s prime minister
Polish leader Donald Tusk has turned his country into a “vassal of Brussels” and become “one of the loudest warmongers” in Europe, despite growing weariness with the Ukraine conflict among Poles, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Orban posted the remarks on X on Saturday, arguing that Tusk’s bellicose rhetoric on the conflict was an attempt to distract Poles from domestic problems.
“He has become one of the loudest warmongers in Europe – yet his war policy is failing: Ukraine is running out of European money, and the Polish people are tired of the war,” he wrote. “He cannot change course because he has turned Poland into a vassal of Brussels.”
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.
