‘Polish populists have determined to show anti-European’: Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski – Talking Europe | EUROtoday

Trzaskowski rounds on the conservative president of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, for opposing the EU Commission’s flagship SAFE programme geared toward boosting European defence.

Trzaskowski says SAFE “is the best programme to strengthen our defence industry”, and calls the president’s veto “incredible”, noting that “for years we had an agreement between us and all the other political forces when it came to strengthening Polish defence and security, helping Ukraine, and so on and so forth. That has been completely dismantled by President Nawrocki.”

For Trzaskowski, “it seems that the president is much more interested in making the life of the current government more difficult, and in jostling for power with other populist parties, than in promoting the Polish national interest.”

Our visitor locations the president’s resolution on SAFE within the context of subsequent 12 months’s parliamentary elections, with a watch to being “the most Eurosceptic in order to get the vote of the conservative electorate”.

“The populists have decided to turn anti-European,” he added.

For Trzaskowski, that very same competitors between forces on the precise is the rationale why populists are “playing the anti-Ukrainian card. And unfortunately, this has some resonance among the people, not in Warsaw, because in Warsaw and in the big cities, people resoundingly keep on supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, but in some other places, yes, there are some people who are either tired with war or who unfortunately listen to the populists who are stoking up those anti-Ukrainian feelings”.

But we put it to Trzaskowski that it’s the present pro-EU authorities, which he’s allied with, that has ended some free medical companies that had been accessible to Ukrainians in Poland – not the conservative opposition.

“You know, we were the country which helped the Ukrainians the most”, Trzaskowski responds. “And we had 400,000 refugees staying in Warsaw alone, staying in our houses. And we’ve granted them almost citizen-like treatment here when it comes to education and healthcare. But, after four years, the European Union as a whole has decided to limit some of those services, especially when it comes to long-term treatment of cancer and so forth.”

Poland has lengthy been seen as a really pro-Atlanticist nation, however latest opinion polls recommend that Poles don’t view Donald Trump almost as favourably as they considered different US presidents. Is {that a} cause for Poland to get on board with French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for European defence, and significantly with the attainable extension of France’s nuclear umbrella to different EU member states?

“Our position is that NATO is the the cornerstone of our security”, Trzaskowski replies. “Of course, we should have the best possible relations with the Americans and try to do everything to make sure that they stay in Europe. But at the same time, we should do absolutely everything to invest in our defence and in European capabilities. And, by the way, that’s exactly what Trump told us – that we should take it more seriously and take more responsibility. So yes, we should strengthen NATO guarantees but we should also consider the plans of President Macron and analyse them very seriously because, quite simply, you are going to be more secure in this part of Europe when you have strong transatlantic capabilities and strong Polish and European capabilities.”

Programme ready by Charlotte Prudhomme, Luke Brown, Paul Guianvarc’h and Perrine Desplats