Adding Orbán’s forces to the ECR group — which also includes Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy — could swing the balance of power more in favor of right-wing Euroskeptic forces in the next EU legislature, with forecasts predicting a rise in support for right-leaning parties.
Morawiecki noted that it is up to the Hungarian government and in particular Orbán first to ask to join, and then for the ECR family to accept them.
Orbán said last month that talks with the ECR were ongoing but there has been skepticism about the prospect of them joining forces because Poland and Hungary don’t see eye to eye on supporting Ukraine.
However, Morawiecki also strongly supported Hungary in its standoff with the other EU member countries over disbursing much-needed financial aid to Ukraine, a topic to be discussed by EU leaders in Brussels this week.
“I see there is an attempt one after the other to blackmail Hungary … I can only tell the Hungarian government and Prime Minister Orbán that we are very much supporting his efforts to fend off those brutal attempts of blackmail, and they are completely breaching all the standards of proceedings,” he said.
“I don’t think this is the way the European Union should operate, definitely no,” Morawiecki added in response to a question about an EU memo that threatened financial retribution against Hungary if it continued to block aid to Ukraine.
Morawiecki, who was wrongly introduced at the press conference as Poland’s “prime minister” by MEP Ryszard Legutko, was defeated by a coalition led by Donald Tusk in a national election last year.