Tusk said on Sunday that reports of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s allies passing detailed information from EU Council meetings to Russia should surprise no one, adding that Poland and others had suspected such behavior for a long time.
His comments followed a report by The Washington Post saying Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó regularly called his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, during breaks in EU summits to provide live updates on the discussions.
One European security official quoted in the report said the practice meant Moscow had effectively been “at the table” during EU talks for years.
According to the report, Szijjártó has made 16 official visits to Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The most recent was on March 4, when he met Putin.
The report also said Russian advisers allegedly suggested staging an assassination attempt on Orbán to improve his electoral prospects ahead of Hungary’s parliamentary election on April 12.
Hungarian authorities rejected that claim as absurd.
Orbán’s Fidesz party is facing a challenge from the opposition Tisza party led by Péter Magyar, which has been well ahead in several independent opinion polls.
Tusk wrote on X that "the news that Orbán’s people inform Moscow about EU Council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone."
He added: "We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time. That’s one reason why I take the floor only when strictly necessary and say just as much as necessary."
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski responded with a brief message directed at Szijjártó, writing, “That would explain a lot, Peter.”
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński used stronger language, saying the alleged contacts marked “a new level of betrayal of democratic Europe.”
The case has added to tensions surrounding Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s planned visit to Hungary on Monday evening, when he is due to meet Orbán in Budapest during observances of Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day.
Tusk criticised the planned Budapest meeting a day earlier, calling it a serious mistake and saying it fit what he described as a "dangerous strategy" by Orban's Hungary of "weakening the European Union and strengthening Russia."
Kierwiński accused Nawrocki of lending support to "Putin's puppet" Orbán, and other Euroskeptic politicians who he said "will be celebrating hatred towards the EU" during the Budapest meeting.
For Poland, the issue touches a wider dispute inside the European Union over support for Ukraine and Hungary’s ties with Moscow.
Orbán has repeatedly broken ranks with other European leaders over Russia, putting Budapest increasingly at odds with Warsaw despite a long history of close ties between the two countries.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP