Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused Karol Nawrocki of failing to “act like a patriot” after the president said he would use his veto powers to block an EU defense loan scheme. On Thursday evening, Nawrocki announced he would veto the law unlocking nearly €44 billion in low-cost loans via the bloc’s SAFE program. The initiative has been the subject of fierce political debate, with Nawrocki and the main right-wing opposition arguing the loan would allow Brussels to meddle in Polish affairs – a claim denied by the government. In a post on social media on Thursday evening, Tusk said: “The President has lost the chance to act like a patriot. Shame!” The prime minister added that the government would issue a full response on Friday morning, having previously indicated that he would use other mechanisms to harness the EU funds, at least partially. ‘The president should not be a coward’ Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski also criticized Nawrocki’s veto, accusing the president of spreading lies about the SAFE program. “President Nawrocki suggested in his address that the European SAFE will hand over control of the Polish Army to Brussels. This is an outrageous lie,” Sikorski said on social media. “The President of a free Poland should not be a liar and a coward,” he added. The speaker of Poland’s lower chamber of parliament, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, accused Nawrocki of committing “treason” by blocking the SAFE initiative. Czarzasty – head of the New Left party, a junior partner in the ruling coalition – said: “In my opinion, the president of our country committed high treason and deprived the Polish military and Poles of 185 billion złoty (€43 billion) of their security.” Poland was allocated more funds than any other member state that applied for the SAFE scheme, with the money set to support 139 defense projects. The government has indicated that the veto, while not derailing the plans in their entirety, will make it more difficult to spend funds on boosting the border force and police, among other areas. Praise from the opposition Jarosław Kaczyński – who heads Poland’s main opposition nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which supports Nawrocki – praised the president’s announcement, calling it a “very good decision.” “Freedom, sovereignty and independence have no price! And the attempt to sell them for credit is an anti-Polish action,” Kaczyński added in a social media post. Przemysław Czarnek – a former education minister who PiS announced last week would be the party’s candidate for prime minister in the 2027 general election – also backed Nawrocki’s decision to veto the SAFE program. He urged the government to work on Nawrocki’s rival proposal, which involves using proceeds from Poland’s national gold reserves. The plan, which Nawrocki has hailed as a “sovereign” alternative, has been criticized by economists as being vulnerable to shifting market conditions. Pushed by Poland Tusk and his supporters deny claims that the EU SAFE program infringes on Polish sovereignty, pointing out that Warsaw itself pushed the initiative during its turn at the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU last year. The government also emphasizes that over 80% of the loan would be spent domestically. Government officials have also argued that loans provided by SAFE would be “significantly cheaper” than those that can be given out by Poland’s state treasury.
