Tusk has warned of a real threat of Poland leaving the EU

Donald Tusk has stated that Poland’s potential exit from the European Union is a real threat. He accused President Karol Nawrocki and right-wing opposition parties of taking actions that could lead the country towards such a scenario.

In a post on X, Tusk noted that both factions of the Confederation alliance and the majority of Law and Justice MPs are seeking to take Poland out of the EU. He described a possible exit as a disaster and declared his intention to do everything to prevent it.

The Prime Minister also linked the risk of a ‘Polexit’ to forces which, in his words, seek to weaken the European Union. Among them, he named Russia, the American MAGA movement and European right-wing politicians, notably Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The statement came after Karol Nawrocki vetoed a law that would have allowed Poland to receive up to €43.7 billion in preferential EU defence loans. The government does not have sufficient support in parliament to override this veto.

Tusk noted that this decision could weaken Poland’s position within the European Union.

Konrad Szymański, a former Minister for European Affairs from the Law and Justice party, wrote in a press article that Polish nationalists are heading down a path that could lead to an exit from the EU, and compared the situation to the events leading up to the 2016 UK referendum.

Polls suggest that support for Poland’s exit from the EU remains low, but is no longer marginal. According to research, between one in ten and one in four Poles are prepared to support the start of such a process, whilst the majority continue to support the country’s membership of the EU.