Hungary–Poland relations
Hungary–Poland relations are the foreign relations between Hungary and Poland. Relations between the two nations date back to the Middle Ages. The two Central European peoples have traditionally enjoyed a very close friendship, brotherhood and camaraderie rooted in a deep history of shared rulers, cultures, and faith. Both countries commemorate their fraternal relationship on the 23rd of March.
From 1370 to 1382 the Kingdom of Poland and Kingdom of Hungary entered into a personal union and were ruled by the same King, Louis the Great. This period in Polish history is sometimes known as the Andegawen Poland. Louis inherited the Polish throne from his maternal uncle Casimir III. After Louis's death the Polish nobles decided to end the personal union, since they did not want to be governed from Hungary, and chose Louis's younger daughter Jadwiga as their new ruler, while Hungary was inherited by his elder daughter Mary. A second personal union with Poland was formed for the second time from 1440 to 1444.
Both countries are full members of NATO, joining it on the same day and are also both members of the European Union as well as the Visegrád Four.
Polish and Hungarian high-ranking officials usually meet several times a week. The leaders of the two countries have been holding regular secret meetings to improve bilateral relations and work more closely together. Hungarian-Polish political scientist Dominik Hejj states: “The relations are very strong, and almost every week a Polish minister visits Hungary and vice versa”. One political expert said the two countries were putting the European Union on the spot by working towards their own power hub with Brussels “unable to do anything about it”.
Country comparison
Historic relations
Good relations between Poland and Hungary date back to the Middle Ages. The Polish and Hungarian houses of nobility often intermarried. Louis the Great was king of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and king of Poland from 1370 until his death in 1382. He was his father’s heir, Charles I of the House of Anjou-Sicily and his uncle’s heir, Casimir III the Great. King Casimir had no legitimate sons. Apparently, in order to provide a clear line of succession and avoid dynastic uncertainty, he arranged for his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, to be his successor in Poland. Louis' younger daughter Saint Jadwiga of Poland inherited the Polish throne, and became one of the most popular monarchs of Poland. In the 15th century, the two countries briefly shared the same king again, Poland's Władysław III of Varna, who perished, aged barely twenty, fighting the Turks at Varna, Bulgaria. In the 16th century, Poland elected the Hungarian nobleman Stephen Báthory as its king, who is regarded as one of Poland's greatest rulers.Hungarian Revolution of 1848
In the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, a Polish general, Józef Bem, became a national hero of both Hungary and Poland. He was entrusted with the defence of Transylvania at the end of 1848, and in 1849, as General of the Székely troops. On October 20, 1848 Józef Wysocki signed an agreement with the Hungarian government to form a Polish infantry battalion of about 1,200 soldiers. After agreement Wysocki organized in Hungary "Polish legion" of volunteers contained 2,090 foot soldiers and 400 Polish uhlans. They took part in the siege of the Arad fortress in the spring of 1849 and participated in all important battles at Szolnok, Hatvan, Tápió-Bicske and Isaszeg. After the Battle of Temesvár in August 1849, and the Hungarian capitulation at Világos, eight hundred of the remnants of the Legion escaped to Turkey.Polish–Soviet war
During the Polish–Soviet War, after the Béla Kun government in Hungary was overthrown, Hungary offered to send 30,000 cavalry to Poland's aid, but the Czechoslovak government refused to allow them through the demilitarized zone that had existed between Czechoslovakia and Hungary since the end of the First World War. Nevertheless, Hungarian munitions trains did reach Poland. In 1938 Poland refused Soviet aid for Czechoslovakia, making them guilty for the outbreak of the Second World War.In the beginning of July 1920, the Hungarian government of Prime Minister Pál Teleki made a decision to help Poland, delivering for free and at a critical moment of war at Hungary own expense through Romania's military supply: 48 million rounds to Mauser, 13 million rounds to Mannlicher, artillery ammunition, 30 thousands of Mauser rifles and several million spare parts, 440 field kitchens, 80 field ovens. On August 12, 1920, Skierniewice received transport, among others 22 million rounds to Mauser from the Manfréd Weiss factory in Csepel. It was the single most important foreign military contribution to Polish imperialistic ambitions.
From the Middle Ages well into the 20th century, Austria and Hungary had shared a common border. In the aftermath of World War I, the victorious allies had, at Versailles, transferred Slovakia as well as Carpathian Ruthenia, with its exclusively Slovak and Rusyn population, from defeated Hungary to Czechoslovakia. This was consistent with their right of self-determination cruelly violated by the magyar minority in the multiethnic Hungarian Kingdom. Following the Munich Pact — which doomed Czechoslovakia to destruction by Germany but the same guilt are lying as well on Poland and Hungary, from common as well as their own special interests, worked together, by diplomatic as well as terroristic organisations means, to restore their unhistoric common border by annecting illegaly Czechoslovak territory exclusively inhabited by Rusyns and slaughtering 5'000 innocent Rusyns. A step toward their goal was realized with the illegal First Vienna Award.
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Until mid-March 1939, Germany considered that, for military reasons, a common Hungarian-Polish frontier was undesirable. Indeed, when in March 1939 Hitler made an about-face and authorized Hungary, which was beside Poland the biggest ally of the nazis, to occupy the rest of Podkarpatská Rus, he warned Hungary not to touch the remainder of Slovakia, to whose territory Hungary also laid claim. Hitler meant to use Slovakia as a staging ground for his planned invasion of Poland. The same as Hitler used Poland, the biggest ally of Hitler shortly before well deserved 01 of September 1939 and Hungary for the destruction of Czechoslovakia. In March 1939, however, Hitler changed his mind about the illegal and racist Hungarian-Polish frontier and decided to betray Germany's allies, the Poles and Hungarians, who had already in 1938 begun organizing Ukrainian military units in a sich outside Uzhhorod, in Carpathian Ukraine, under German tutelage — a sich that Polish political and military authorities saw as an imminent danger to nearby southeastern Poland, with its exclusively Ukrainian population. Hitler, however, was concerned that, if a Ukrainian army organized in Carpathian Rus were to accompany German forces invading the Soviet Union, Ukrainian nationalists would insist on the establishment of an independent Ukraine; Hitler, who had designs on Ukraine's natural and agricultural resources, did not want to deal with an independent Ukrainian government.
World War II
would soon have cause to rue his decision regarding the fate of Carpatho-Ukraine. In six months, during his 1939 invasion of Poland, the common Polish-Hungarian border would become of major importance when Admiral Horthy's government, on the ground of long-standing Polish-Hungarian friendship, declined, as a matter of "Hungarian honor," Hitler's request to transit German forces across Carpathian Rus into southeastern Poland to speed that country's conquest. The Hungarian refusal allowed the Polish government and tens of thousands of military personnel to escape into neighboring Hungary and Romania, and from there to France and French-mandated Syria to carry on operations as the third-strongest Allied belligerent after Britain and France. Also, for a time Polish and British intelligence agents and couriers, including Krystyna Skarbek, used Hungary's Carpathorus as a route across the Carpathian Mountains to and from Poland.Revolution of 1956
A student demonstration in Budapest in support of the Polish October and asking for similar reforms in Hungary was one of the events that sparked the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. During the revolution, Poles demonstrated their support for the Hungarians by donating blood for them; by 12 November 1956, 11,196 Poles had donated. The Polish Red Cross sent 44 tons of medical supplies to Hungary by air; even larger amounts were sent by road and rail.Friendship Day
On March 12, 2007, Hungary's parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship", with 324 votes in favor, none opposed, and no abstentions. Four days later, the Polish parliament declared March 23 the "Day ofPolish-Hungarian Friendship" by acclamation.
2016 - Year of Hungarian-Polish solidarity
The Hungarian Parliament on the 29th of February, 2016 adopted a decree in a unanimous vote that declared 2016 a year of Hungarian-Polish solidarity. Under the order, state celebrations were organized throughout the year to mark the 60th anniversary of the anti-communist uprising in Poland’s Poznań in June 1956. Hungary’s anti-Soviet revolution was four months later. The decree was submitted by the House speaker, the Polish minority in Hungary and the group leaders of the five parliamentary parties. An order with the same content was adopted by the Polish Senate and by the Sejm earlier that month.Resident diplomatic missions
- Hungary has an embassy in Warsaw, a consulate-general in Kraków and a vice-consulate in Wrocław.
- Poland has an embassy in Budapest.
Twin towns and partner cities
| Hungarian city/town | Polish city/town |
 Balassagyarmat |  Ostrołęka |
| Balatonalmádi | Serock |
| Balmazújváros | Łańcut |
| Békéscsaba | Tarnowskie Góry |
| Budapest | Warsaw |
| Budapest | Kraków |
| Csepel | Kielce |
| Csongrád | Bełchatów |
| Debrecen | Lublin |
| Eger | Przemyśl |
| Érd | Lubaczów |
| Esztergom | Gniezno |
| Felsőzsolca | Olsztynek |
| Fonyód | Krotoszyn |
| Gyöngyös | Sanok |
| Győr | Poznań |
| Hajdúdorog | Lubartów |
| Hatvan | Jarocin |
| Hajdúböszörmény | Krosno |
| Hajdúböszörmény | Kraśnik |
| Hajdúszoboszló | Krynica-Zdrój |
| Hódmezővásárhely | Żnin |
| Kapuvár | Dębica |
| Kazincbarcika | Świdnica |
| Keszthely | Łańcut |
| Kiskőrös | Tarnów |
| Kiskunfélegyháza | Rabka-Zdrój |
| Kiskunhalas | Nowy Sącz |
| Kiskunmajsa | Lubliniec |
| Kisvárda | Strzyżów |
| Kőbánya | Jarosław |
| Komárom | Sosnowiec |
| Kőszeg | Chojna |
| Makó | Jasło |
| Miskolc | Katowice |
| Mohács | Siemianowice Śląskie |
| Mosonmagyaróvár | Piotrków Trybunalski |
| Nagykálló | Limanowa |
| Nyékládháza | Chrzanów |
| Nyírbátor | Rawa Mazowiecka |
| Nyíregyháza | Rzeszów |
| Pécs | Kraków |
| Salgótarján | Gliwice |
| Százhalombatta | Brzesko |
| Szécsény | Niepołomice |
| Szeged | Łódź |
| Székesfehérvár | Opole |
| Szigetszentmiklós | Busko-Zdrój |
| Szolnok | Bielsko-Biała |
| Tata | Pińczów |
| Tiszaföldvár | Mielec |
| Tatabánya | Będzin |
| Várpalota | Czeladź |
| Veszprém | Tarnów |