Immediately after taking office in the wake of Donald Tusk’s government taking power at the end of 2023, Poland’s new justice minister, Adam Bodnar, quickly proclaimed that he would dismantle everything the previous conservative government under Law & Justice (PiS) had built up over eight years, writes Mandiner.
What followed included purges of state media and the Prosecutor General’s Office (bypassing the head of state) and going after the former director of the state oil company PKN-Orlen, current MEP Daniel Obajtek.
When contacted by Politico magazine to ask him his opinion on Hungary, Bodnar said: “The example of Poland shows that unless you have a change of leadership, it might be extremely difficult to reverse [course on] rule of law and to regain democratic values.”
According to Mandiner, the Polish justice minister is indicating that Brussels is capable of anything and is willing to even overthrow sovereignist governments to force them back in line.
Politico ranked Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar as “Disruptor No. 6,” in their “Politico 28: Class of 2025” list, calling him “the first major, credible challenge to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 14-year reign.” However, according to Bodnar, even with Magyar in power, “the damage to civil society will have been so profound over 16 years of Fidesz rule that it would require a Herculean effort to repair it.”
This is not the first time Bodnar has spoken out on Hungary; he has been a fierce proponent of the independence of Hungarian courts and judges, which he says has been suppressed. As Poland will be taking over the rotating EU Council presidency from Hungary in January, his statements leave many wondering what Poland may have planned in that role. Bodnar himself told Politico that he would be seeking to mitigate concerns surrounding “judges who increasingly face pressure and intimidation” in the EU.
