Poland’s President Nawrocki rejects EU arms mortgage price billions | EUROtoday

As of: March 12, 2026 • 10:07 p.m

Poland needed to speculate 44 billion euros from a low-interest EU mortgage in its protection. But now the Eurosceptic President Nawrocki has vetoed it – and introduced his personal plan.

Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed a regulation that might safe his nation a billion-dollar mortgage from an EU arms program.

“Poland’s security must not depend on foreign decisions,” stated Nawrocki, justifying his transfer. “Only a people who manage to take care of their own security will remain truly free.”

As a part of the SAFE program, the EU is offering 150 billion euros in low cost loans to increase the protection capabilities of its members. Poland needs to be the largest beneficiary with nearly 44 billion euros. According to the Ministry of Defense’s plans, this needs to be used to buy defensive weapons in opposition to drones and missiles in addition to helicopters and boats.

Tusk: “The president has missed an opportunity”

At the top of February, Parliament accredited the regulation implementing the EU program with the votes of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s center-left coalition. At the time, Tusk emphasised that greater than 80 p.c of the cash could be invested in orders for Polish protection firms, and that 12,000 native firms would profit from it. But Nawrocki, who was important of Europe, was skeptical from the beginning.

“The president has missed an opportunity to behave like a patriot,” stated Tusk, commenting on the veto on X. He known as a rare authorities assembly for Friday morning.

Poland’s right-wingers do not need to be “under German boots”

The dispute is indicative of the place in Warsaw since Nawrocki’s election in 2025. Since then, the essential EU and NATO state has now not spoken with one voice on strategic points.

The president and head of presidency Tusk, who’re supported by the right-wing conservative opposition occasion PiS, come from hostile political camps. For weeks, the highly effective PiS chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski has been campaigning in opposition to the SAFE program and spreading an anti-German narrative.

Accordingly, the EU arms program is a part of a plan to convey the EU nearer collectively underneath German dominance. Kaczynski claimed that German protection firms would primarily profit. “We are being offered a Poland under the German boot, and we reject this German boot.”

Nawrocki presents an alternate program

In order to have the ability to reject EU loans however nonetheless spend money on Poland’s rearmament, Nawrocki not too long ago introduced an alternate plan known as “Safe 0 percent” along with National Bank boss Adam Glapinski.

It stipulates that an armaments program of considerably the identical measurement needs to be financed interest-free from the National Bank’s overseas change and gold reserves. Details stay unclear, and monetary consultants warn in regards to the dangers: the National Bank has solely made losses in recent times. Furthermore, this could be unlawful underneath the present authorized state of affairs.

“This project means a strong army without debt for generations,” Nawrocki stated in a speech. He appealed to all political forces to help this plan. To implement it, nevertheless, it wants the approval of Tusk’s authorities. And he has already made it clear that he is not going to grant this.

With data from Przemyslaw Zuk, ARD, Studio Warsaw.