Poland’s New President Is Picking Fights With His Prime Minister, The EU, And Russia

By Andrew Korybko

This is true to his character as an amateur boxer.

Poland’s new president Karol Nawrocki came out swinging against Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the EU, and Russia to a lesser extent during his inaugural address in early August. He talked a lot about how his election is a mandate for change by Poles who believe that the country can no longer continue being governed as it’s been since Tusk’s return to power in late 2023. He therefore proposed an entirely new constitution by 2030 in a move that’ll certainly influence the next parliamentary elections in fall 2027.

More political deadlock is accordingly expected and it’s possible that this could lead to early elections. Whether or not it does, however, Nawrocki pledged to prioritize megaprojects like the Central Transportation Port (CPK by its Polish abbreviation) that have become lightning rods of partisan discord over the past year and a half. The narrative among conservative-nationalists in Poland is that Tusk has curtailed and delayed that project in particular and others in general as a favour to his German patrons.

On that note, Nawrocki also promised that he’ll safeguard Polish sovereignty in the face of the German-led EU’s efforts to continually erode it. He explicitly declared that “I will therefore be the voice of those who want a sovereign Poland, a Poland that is in the European Union, but a Poland that is not the European Union, only Poland – and will remain Poland…I will never agree to the European Union taking away Poland’s competences.” He correspondingly rejected the euro and promised to keep the zloty.

Segueing towards Russia, which wasn’t directly mentioned in his inaugural address but was strongly alluded to, Nawrocki said that “Poland’s security begins with every soldier – with their equipment, their awareness, their fortitude and their heart. I will be the voice of Polish soldiers and Polish officers. I will support, Mr Prime Minister, Mr Minister, all efforts to modernise the Polish army, and I will strive to make the Polish army the largest NATO force in the European Union.”

He then proposed expanding the Bucharest Nine – which refers to the Visegrad Group, the Baltic States, Romania, and Bulgaria – to the Bucharest Eleven through multilateral cooperation with NATO’s newest Scandinavian members. This aligns with his three regional priorities that he outlined in early June during an interview with Hungarian media and which were analysed here. Poland’s megaprojects (some of which will greatly improve military logistics), militarization, and regional plans all pose a threat to Russia.

Russia might therefore interestingly find itself on the same side as Tusk and the EU vis-à-vis Nawrocki, who’s endorsed by Trump, though this curious convergence of interests likely won’t lead to any breakthrough in Russian-Polish or Russian-EU ties. In any case, the optics show that Nawrocki is picking fights with practically everyone (apart from the US of course), which is true to his character as an amateur boxer. He sincerely believes that this advances Poland’s objective national interests.

While it’s debatable whether posing threats to Russia is in Poland’s best interests, opposing Tusk and the EU certainly are since they’re liberal-globalists that want to subordinate Poland to Germany. Nawrocki wants to liberate Poland from their yoke, albeit while placing it more solidly under the US’, to which end he proposed a new constitution and pledged to safeguard Polish sovereignty. He’s off to a good start but won’t be able to change much unless conservative-nationalists win back the Sejm in fall 2027 or earlier.

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

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Categories: Analysis, Geopolitics, International Affairs

Tags: EU, Europe, Geopolitics, Germany, NATO, Poland, Russia, USA