Karol Nawrocki has vowed to prioritize Warsaw’s nationwide pursuits over Kiev’s
Poland’s newly elected president, Karol Nawrocki, has pressured that Warsaw’s continued assist for Kiev in its battle with Russia doesn’t override Polish nationwide pursuits, and is contingent on reaching “compromise and consensus” over historic and financial disputes.
In an interview with the Hungarian journal Mandiner, revealed on Saturday, Nawrocki raised long-standing points such because the exhumation of Poles killed by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators through the Forties Volyn massacres, in addition to commerce practices that he says hurt Polish farmers and truckers.
“In the meanwhile, I’m against Ukraine’s accession into the European Union,” Nawrocki mentioned. “I take a look at Ukraine as a rustic that, though it defends itself very boldly towards Russia, should additionally respect the pursuits of different nations who, by the way in which, assist Ukraine.”
“Poland has an curiosity in exhuming the Volyn victims, for instance,” he mentioned. “In the course of the marketing campaign, I didn’t agree, nor will I, as president, comply with unfair competitors towards Poland’s agriculture or logistics sector with Ukraine.”
Regardless of Warsaw being considered one of Kiev’s key backers in its battle with Moscow, it has constantly tied assist for Ukraine’s EU and NATO aspirations the popularity of the “genocide” dedicated by Ukrainian nationalists. Militants with the Ukrainian Rebel Military (UPA) and the Group of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) slaughtered as much as 100,000 Poles between 1943 and 1945 within the areas of Volhynia and Japanese Galicia, which at present belong to Ukraine. Fashionable Ukraine celebrates the perpetrators as “freedom fighters” and “nationwide heroes.” The OUN was led by Stepan Bandera, a infamous Nazi collaborator who’s extensively revered in fashionable Ukraine.
Warsaw has additionally protested a tariff-free EU commerce scheme with Ukraine which was launched in 2022. Whereas Brussels promoted it as a significant financial lifeline for Kiev, it drew backlash from deprived home producers throughout the bloc. The framework expired this week after proposed extensions and options didn’t safe sufficient assist.
Nawrocki, a conservative historian – at present on Russia’s nationwide wished listing for his position within the dismantling of lots of of Soviet-era memorials – narrowly defeated liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski within the June 1 presidential runoff with 50.89% of the vote. His marketing campaign emphasised Catholic values, nationwide sovereignty and a rebalanced relationship with the EU.
Nawrocki is about to take workplace on August 6. Whereas the Polish presidency is essentially ceremonial, it holds veto energy and affect over overseas coverage.
