V4 rapprochement?
September 8th, 2022Commenting on Polish PM Morawieczki’s suggestion that V4 cooperation should be revived, an Eastern Europe expert deems it unlikely that the Visegrad countries (Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland) could reunite diplomatically any time soon.
On Sunday, in an interview with the Sieci magazine, Polish Prime Minister Morawieczki called for the Visegrad group cooperation to be rebooted. Morawieczki acknowledged that the war in Ukraine created fserious riction in the V4. But he suggested that the Visegrad governments should overcome their differences over the war and revive their cooperation, which makes each member stronger.
In an interview with InfoRádio, Eastern Europe expert Miklós Mitrovits deems it unlikely that the cleavages over the war in Ukraine can be easily overcome and the V4 cooperation resume. Mitrovits points out that Poland has become one of the most vocal opponents of Russia, which has distanced it from the other Visegrad countries. Mitrovits suspects that by calling for the resumption of the V4 alliance, Morawieczki wanted to send a message to right-wing voters in Poland as well as to the EU leadership which is still blocking EU funding for Poland. Mitrovits notes that there are other vast political differences that make the former close cooperation within the V4 alliance difficult. As an example, he cites the different political ideologies of the Hungarian and Czech governments.