WARSAW: Hungary could learn from Poland on fighting corruption and restoring ties with Europe, new Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Wednesday, bidding to turn the page on the acrimony of the Viktor Orban years.

Magyar chose Poland for his first foreign visit after his election win over Hungary’s longtime leader Orban, a Kremlin-friendly nationalist who oversaw years of tensions with both Poland under Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the European Union.

Hailing Magyar’s crushing of Orban at the ballot box in April, Tusk told his Hungarian counterpart their two countries would work to defend their common interests in Brussels in the post-Orban era.

“Through our daily work, we shall show that Hungary and Poland are one,” the pro-European leader told a joint news conference with Magyar. He praised Budapest’s “return to Europe, to high standards, to honesty, to a genuine democracy”.

Tusk also vowed to “work together in Brussels on geopolitical issues and to defend our various common interests, because we have practically nothing but common interests”. Magyar said Poland had much to teach Hungary about how to restore the rule of law, fight corruption and unblock EU funds.

Drawing parallels between the two leaders’ electoral wins over entrenched nationalist, authoritarian leaders, Magyar said his host in Warsaw “was also faced with similar problems”. “And I am counting heavily on the experience of the prime minister of Poland,” he added. “Hungary will be a partner of Poland in all areas.”

In 2023, Tusk’s coalition ended eight years of rule by the nationalist and populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, an ally of Orban on the European stage. Since then, relations between Orban’s Hungary and Poland have been poor, with Tusk, a firm ally of Ukraine, frequently butting heads with pro-Kremlin Orban.

Now Hungary’s new leader is counting on Tusk’s backing to try to recover billions of euros of EU funds frozen by Brussels as relations with Budapest deteriorated during Orban’s rule. Piotr Serafin, the EU’s current budget commissioner, was Tusk’s chief of staff when Tusk was president of the European Commission between 2014 and 2019. A delegation from the commission is expected in Budapest this week, and Magyar hopes to finalise a deal with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen when he visits Brussels next Monday.

Tusk also promised Hungary his help with any future diversification of its energy supply. Budapest is highly dependent on Russian fossil fuels. In contrast to Orban, Magyar repeated his support for Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Russian attacks, despite his country’s longstanding disputes with Kyiv, including over the status of its Hungarian-speaking minority.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2026