Hungary's New PM Magyar Picks Poland for First Foreign Visit in Bid to Repair Ties

A Trip With Stops in Warsaw, Krakow, and Gdańsk
Magyar's itinerary covers more than just the Polish capital. He has confirmed he will also visit Krakow, Poland's second-largest city, and the historic Baltic port city of Gdańsk, making it a meaningful journey rather than a quick diplomatic stopover.

In Warsaw, he is scheduled to hold talks with both Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Polish President Karol Nawrocki. The meetings carry significant weight given how tense relations between the two countries have become in recent years. Magyar has also confirmed a personal meeting with Lech Wałęsa, the legendary anti-communist leader who became Poland's first democratically elected president after the fall of communism, during his stop in Gdańsk. After wrapping up his Polish visit, Magyar is expected to travel to Vienna before making his return to Budapest by train.

Repairing What Orbán Left Behind
The diplomatic chill between Hungary and Poland did not happen overnight. Viktor Orbán led Hungary for nearly 16 years before being removed from power in last month's parliamentary elections. During that time, his eurosceptic stance made him a natural ally of Poland's former right-wing Law and Justice government. But that alignment began to crack after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Orbán maintained a notably warm relationship with Moscow — a position that put him at odds with much of Europe, including Warsaw.

Things deteriorated further under Prime Minister Tusk's centrist administration when Hungary extended international protection to a former Polish justice minister who was wanted in Poland on suspicion of committing more than two dozen offenses. That decision added a sharp legal dimension to what was already a fragile diplomatic relationship.

Magyar, who built his entire election campaign around the promise of bringing Hungary back into the mainstream of European Union politics, had already pledged as far back as February that a government under his leadership would work to rebuild political, economic, and cultural ties between Hungary and Poland. His choice of Warsaw as his first destination abroad suggests that the pledge is now being turned into action.