Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar is travelling to Poland on Tuesday, 19 May, for his first official foreign trip since taking office, where he is set to meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in what both governments are portraying as the beginning of a new chapter in Polish–Hungarian relations.

According to statements from Budapest and local media reports, Magyar will arrive with an unusually large delegation consisting of approximately six ministers and senior officials, underlining the strategic significance his government attaches to ties with Warsaw.

Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, Economy and Energy Minister István Kapitány, Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy, Agriculture Minister Szabolcs Bóna, Culture Minister Zoltán Tarr, and National Security Adviser Péter Tóth are all expected to participate in the talks.

Adding further symbolism and political significance to the visit, Anita Orbán announced on Monday that her ministry had recalled Hungary’s ambassador to Warsaw, who had been appointed under the previous government led by Viktor Orbán. According to the foreign minister, ‘a new era requires a new approach,’ adding that Budapest intends to place bilateral cooperation ‘on new foundations’.

Hungarian–Polish relations are entering a new phase. In the coming days, we will arrive in Poland with a high-level delegation, with the shared goal of placing our cooperation on new foundations.

A new era requires a new approach. Therefore, I have decided to recall Hungary’s…

— Anita Orban (@_OrbanAnita) May 18, 2026

Speaking about the trip on Monday, Magyar said the discussions would focus primarily on trade and energy cooperation. He also emphasized the importance of reviving regional cooperation within the Visegrád Group, arguing that ‘for V4 cooperation to become strong again, a very strong Polish–Hungarian axis is indispensable.’

Magyar’s itinerary includes stops in Kraków, Warsaw, and Gdańsk. In Kraków, the Hungarian prime minister is expected to meet the local archbishop and representatives of civil society before travelling by train to Warsaw for formal talks with Polish leaders.

In addition to meeting Tusk and members of the Polish government, Magyar is also scheduled to hold talks with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, as well as the speakers of both chambers of parliament. In Gdańsk, he plans to meet former Polish president and Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa and lay a wreath at the city’s Solidarity memorial.

The Master and His Disciple?

The visit also reflects the increasingly close political relationship between Magyar and Tusk. Although the two leaders come from different political traditions, their political trajectories—and much of the criticism directed at them—share notable similarities. Tusk also openly supported political change in Hungary ahead of the 2026 election and met Magyar even before the campaign entered its decisive phase.

Tusk returned to power in 2023, ending the eight-year rule of Orbán ally right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, a period characterized by constant disputes with Brussels, the freezing of EU funds on rule-of-law grounds, and what critics described as an increasingly centralized power structure.

Tusk campaigned on restoring the rule of law and normalizing relations with the European Union, while his central campaign promise was to unblock frozen EU funds. He also pledged to dismantle what he described as the PiS ‘deep state’, ranging from the judiciary to public media institutions.

We held a friendly discussion with Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, in Munich. We agreed that both Hungary and Poland must do everything possible to help achieve a Russian–Ukrainian peace agreement as soon as possible.
We agreed that, immediately following the change of… pic.twitter.com/mprf9n7ouw

— Magyar Péter (Ne féljetek) (@magyarpeterMP) February 13, 2026

Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party ran a strikingly similar campaign in 2026, employing comparable symbolism and political messaging to Tusk’s 2023 campaign. Magyar’s central promise was likewise to secure frozen EU funds and dismantle what he described as Orbán’s ‘deep state’. On 12 April, the Tisza Party ended the 16-year rule of Orbán and Fidesz–KDNP with a landslide constitutional supermajority victory, giving Magyar a considerably stronger mandate than the one Tusk received in Poland.

After taking office, Tusk immediately began implementing his agenda, what many figures linked to PiS and broader European right-wing circles described as the opposite of restoring the rule of law. These included overhauling state media—including controversial police-assisted interventions at public broadcasters—attempts to restructure the judiciary, and the launch of multiple criminal investigations against former government officials.

Magyar appears to be moving along a similar trajectory. Major restructuring and funding reductions are already expected in Hungarian state media, while the prime minister has called on nearly all public officials appointed under Orbán—including the President of Hungary—to resign by 31 May or face removal.

Magyar has also repeatedly stated that former ministers and businessmen linked to Orbán will be held accountable for what he described as the ‘looting’ of the country over the past 16 years. Fidesz and Orbán have increasingly begun using arguments similar to those previously used by PiS against Tusk’s government, while Tisza has pointed to the historic mandate it secured in the election.

Post-Orbán Polish–Hungarian Thaw

Relations between Warsaw and Budapest became increasingly strained during Viktor Orbán’s final years in office, primarily because of major disagreements over Russia and the war in Ukraine. While Hungary maintained a more cautious and pragmatic approach towards Moscow, Poland emerged as one of Kyiv’s strongest supporters within both NATO and the European Union.

While the Tisza Party has taken a firm stance against Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine, it has also signalled a more pragmatic approach on energy policy, particularly regarding Russian oil imports, as it pledged to maintain one of the flagship policies of the Orbán era: the reduced utility price scheme for residential consumers.

On Ukraine, Péter Magyar has tied the resetting of bilateral relations to resolving minority rights issues concerning the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, a western region of Ukraine. According to Anita Orbán, expert-level negotiations on the matter were already underway as of Monday.

Tensions between the Tusk and Orbán administrations escalated further following a series of diplomatic disputes, including Hungary granting political asylum to two former Polish government officials who were under investigation by the Tusk government. Poland responded with several retaliatory diplomatic measures, including recalling its ambassador and excluding the Hungarian ambassador from events connected to Poland’s EU presidency.

Péter Magyar first announced on election night, 12 April, that his first official foreign visit as prime minister would be to Warsaw, describing the trip as part of efforts to rebuild Polish–Hungarian relations and strengthen regional cooperation. He later also talked about a broader V9 format, including Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Austria.

Following the Polish visit, Magyar is expected to continue on to Austria on 21 May for meetings with Austrian government officials.

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