Stupefaction in the Polish Press: Fakt Tabloid Covers Former Justice Minister Ziobro’s Escape to the United States

The Polish tabloid Fakt, like many media outlets in the country, has decided to dedicate its front page on May 11th to the escape of former Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro across the Atlantic. Ziobro confirmed the previous day that he was in the United States.

“Ziobro Fled to the USA,” reads the headline of the newspaper, noting that the former minister is no longer in Hungary, where he had been granted asylum under Viktor Orban’s regime in January 2026. “He allegedly used a ruse to flee. He left as a journalist with a visa,” writes Fakt, relying on information from the online media source Onet.

Climate Change in Hungary

The highly controversial Zbigniew Ziobro is facing charges from the Polish judiciary for “leading a criminal gang and using his position for criminal purposes” during his tenure in the Justice Ministry between 2015 and 2023, under the nationalist populist PiS (Law and Justice) government. He is accused of rigging tenders that benefitted conservative foundations, with the involvement of his former deputy minister, Marcin Romanowski, who is also under investigation.

However, the climate changed for the two fugitives in Hungary, where they had been living leisurely days on the Danube—Marcin Romanowski enjoying Hungarian protection since December 2024. The new center-right Prime Minister Peter Magyar, aiming to break away from the Orban era, had made it clear during his campaign that he would “extradite [the two accused] on the first day of the new government formation,” as highlighted by Fakt.

This urgency led Zbigniew Ziobro to hastily depart, as captured by a TVN24 private television channel informant at Newark Airport in New Jersey on May 9th, the same day Peter Magyar was being sworn in Hungary. Without his Polish passport, Ziobro could not enter the United States with his refugee passport. The very conservative news channel Republika (close to PiS) allegedly helped the fugitive obtain a visa allowing entry into the United States, according to Fakt, citing Onet.