French President Emmanuel Macron said Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki is "a far-right antisemite who bans LGBT people" after Morawiecki criticized him for his talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
France's ambassador to Poland was summoned by the Polish foreign ministry on Friday following the remarks.
Morawiecki compared Macron's efforts with Putin to negotiating with Hitler, referring to regular talks that the French president has held with Putin since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
"President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin? What have you achieved?... Would you negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot?" Morawiecki said at a Monday news conference.
The Polish government spokesman on Friday called President Macron's remarks "incomprehensible" and blamed them on the "political emotions that accompany every election campaign."
"However, at present, talking about the prime minister of the Polish government in the context of antisemitism is, quite simply, a lie, it has nothing to do with the facts," Piotr Müller told reporters.
"I hope this election campaign in France will calm down a bit, and then the president of France will speak differently and really stick to historical facts," he added.
"It is my duty to speak with him, we need it. I won't stop doing it, that's what allows us to take part in the negotiation," Macron said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper, regarding remarks by Poland’s PM.
"By talking to him and to [Ukraine's] President Zelensky, we can help in the negotiations. At some point, there will be a ceasefire and peace will have to be built. It cannot be done without a guarantor, France is committed to being one of these guarantors," Macron added.
Macron also claimed Morawiecki had ulterior motives and wished to help his rival Marine Le Pen in the upcoming French presidential election.