Hungary grants political asylum to former Polish minister facing multiple investigations

Brussels – Hungary has granted political asylum to former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who is under investigation in his home country on 26 charges, including creating and leading a criminal organisation that allegedly misused 35.6 million euros in state funds. Viktor Orbán’s government is thus supporting its ally, the sovereignist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.

As Minister of Justice, Ziobro was the architect of judicial reforms that sparked a long conflict between Warsaw and Brussels over the rule of law, for which the country was ordered by the EU Court of Justice in 2021 to pay a daily fine of 1 million euros. Ziobro himself announced in a post on X that he had “decided to take advantage of the asylum granted to me by the Hungarian government due to political repression in Poland.”

Among the 26 charges against the former minister is the misuse of state resources from the Justice Fund, dedicated to assisting crime victims. Furthermore, Ziobro  is accused of running a criminal group and using approximately 150 million zloty (over 35 million euros) to fund a system of political patronage and to purchase Pegasus spyware, which, according to media investigations, was used against members of the opposition. 

In November, the Polish Parliament – now with a narrow majority representing Donald Tusk’s pro-European government – approved the lifting of the former minister’s immunity, paving the way for his arrest. Ziobro left the country for Hungary a month before the vote. “I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said, personally thanking Prime Minister Orbán for granting him asylum.

In a post on X, Tusk commented sarcastically: “The former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum. A logical choice.” In 2024, after Mateusz Morawiecki’s PiS government was replaced by Tusk’s Civic Platform, Hungary granted political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, Ziobro’s number two at the Ministry of Justice.

Within the EU, there is no real mechanism for political asylum between Member States, because one of the assumptions of the 12-star club is that “the level of protection of fundamental rights and freedoms must be guaranteed in each State.” There are exceptions whereby an EU citizen who fears persecution in their own country can apply for international protection in another Member State. To justify the slap at Warsaw, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said, “Democracy and the rule of law are currently under threat in Poland.”