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Duda’s Rzeszow Remarks Set the Stage For Nawrocki’s Foreign Policy Vision

By Editor on 21st July 2025 • ( 0 )

Duda’s Rzeszow Remarks Set the Stage For Nawrocki’s Foreign Policy Vision

He seemingly expects that this will support his successor’s efforts to turn Poland into a regional power.

Outgoing Polish President Andrzej Duda recently slammed Ukraine and the West, specifically Germany and the US, for taking Poland’s logistics infrastructure for granted. He even suggested that Warsaw could shut down the Rzeszow Airport through which around 90% of Ukraine’s foreign military aid passes on spurious pretexts as leverage. While it’s unlikely that Poland will risk the US’ wrath by blackmailing it in this way, his rhetoric succeeded in getting his intended audience’s attention. Here are his exact words:

“I believe that both Ukrainians and our allies simply believe that the Rzeszow airport and our highways are theirs, excuse me, as if they were theirs. Well, it’s not theirs, it’s ours. If someone doesn’t like something, we close it down and say goodbye. Yes, we’re renovating it.

We close the Rzeszow airport and deliver aid to Ukraine by sea, by air, I don’t know, parachute it in. Figure it out if you don’t think you need us.

I believe there were issues where we could have made it a little clear that we cannot be bypassed or ignored. And we didn’t do that. And that was a mistake. This isn’t about talks with Ukraine. We need to discuss this with our allies—Germany, the Americans.”

Duda then revealed that Poland wasn’t included in talks during 2023’s NATO Summit in Vilnius on sending more aid to Ukraine despite this only being possible through his country’s territory. It therefore appears that he has lots of pent-up anger from two years ago that he’s finally expressing during his last weeks in office. He didn’t do so earlier so as to avoid creating problems for the then-ruling conservatives and then later to avoid more creating problems for himself with the new ruling liberal-globalist coalition.

Seeing as how Polish foreign policy is formulated through collaboration between the President, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, making a big deal about this back when the conservatives still ruled Poland could have exacerbated rifts within the government before that fall’s election. Likewise, after the conservatives were replaced by a liberal-globalist coalition, this could have led to the new Prime Minister and Foreign Minister accusing him of provoking rifts with Poland’s allies for domestic political purposes.

The reason why Duda is speaking up now likely has to do with his successor Karol Nawrocki’s vision. The incoming president narrowly won by pledging to obstruct the ruling liberal-globalists’ agenda, which could lead to early elections depending on how serious the resultant deadlock becomes. All matters related to Ukraine are increasingly important to the electorate nowadays, who’ve come to believe that Poland hasn’t received enough benefits from that country and the West for its crucial role in this conflict.

Accordingly, Nawrocki is expected to do his utmost to ensure that this changes, to which end Duda’s latest rhetoric about Rzeszow Airport justifies him obstructing the ruling liberal-globalists on this front. Nawrocki won’t blackmail Ukraine and the West by threatening to close down that facility, but he could loudly remind them of its importance as a negotiating tactic for getting the first to grant Poland a privileged role in its reconstruction and for the second to include it in talks on their envisaged endgame.

His goal is for Poland to be placed on the path for leading Central & Eastern Europe once the conflict finally ends, which can only happen through the aforesaid means, not by continuing with the previous conservative government’s and the ruling liberal-globalist’s subordination to foreign interests. Duda shares Nawrocki’s vision but was unable to advance it for the previously mentioned political reasons, for which he now feels pangs of guilt, hence why he’s trying to aid him with his rhetoric as a parting gift.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.