Polish opposition presidential candidate “can’t currently see Ukraine in NATO” and opposes ending abortion ban

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The presidential candidate supported by Poland’s main conservative opposition party has said that he currently “does not envision Ukraine in the EU or NATO”. He also pledged to veto any attempts by the government to end the current near-total ban on abortion or to introduce same-sex civil partnerships.

Karol Nawrocki’s remarks have prompted criticism from the prime minister, Donald Tusk, who says the opposition should be “ashamed” of his views on Ukraine. Meanwhile, Tusk’s candidate for the presidency, Rafał Trzaskowski, has described Nawrocki’s views on abortion as “medieval”.

In November, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) – Poland’s ruling party from 2015 to 2023 and now the main opposition – announced that it was supporting Nawrocki, the head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), who is standing as a non-party candidate for president.

On Wednesday this week, Nawrocki gave an interview to Polsat, one of Poland’s leading television stations, outlining his views on a number of major areas of policy, including Ukraine’s aspirations to join Western institutions.

“Currently, I do not envision Ukraine in any such structure – neither the European Union nor NATO – until important civilisational issues for Poland are resolved,” said Nawrocki.

That was a reference to the lingering legacy of the Volhynia massacres, in which Ukrainian nationalists killed around 100,000 ethnic Polish civilians during World War Two. Poland regards the episode as a genocide, but Ukraine has rejected that characterisation and honours some of the nationalist leaders as heroes.

“A country that is not able to account for a very brutal crime against 120,000 of its neighbours cannot be part of international alliances,” said Nawrocki, who, as head of the IPN, has been pushing for Ukraine to allow the exhumation of the remains of victims buried in unmarked mass graves.

In response to Nawrocki’s remarks, Tusk today asked PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński if he “is not ashamed” to support a candidate who “says he does not see a place for Ukraine in NATO”.

However, PiS figures quickly pointed out that one of Tusk’s deputy prime ministers, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, last year similarly suggested that Poland would not allow Ukraine to join the EU until the issue of the Vohynia massacres is “resolved”.

When asked about the issue of abortion, Nawrocki said that, as a “Christian and a Catholic”, he is “pro-life from conception to natural death”.

“Of course, I take into account in my position that Poland is made up of people with different sensitivities, but the foundations I start from are pro-life,” he added.

He noted that that means he supports the possibility of abortion when a mother’s life is threatened by pregnancy, as is currently permitted. The existing law – resulting from a 2020 constitutional court ruling – also allows abortion in cases of a threat to a mother’s health or if a pregnancy results from rape or incest.

Nawrocki said, however, that he would not sign any bill softening the law, even to return to the pre-2021 law that also allowed pregnancies to be terminated if a severe birth defect was diagnosed in the foetus.

In a separate interview today with broadcaster Radio Plus, Nawrocki confirmed that he is against the “eugenic premise” that foetuses diagnosed with, for example, Down syndrome, should be aborted. “I know such children, and I have worked with them. There is a lot of joy, happiness, love in them.”

The current ruling coalition wants to liberalise the abortion law, though it has not been able to agree on how. Tusk’s centrist Civil Coalition (KO) and The Left (Lewica) want to introduce abortion on demand.

However, more conservative elements in the centre-right Third Way (Trzecia Droga), the final coalition partner, prefer not to go so far and want instead to return to the pre-2021 law.

Opinion polls indicate that a significant majority of the Polish public want to liberalise the abortion law, though they too are divided as to whether to introduce abortion on demand or return to the pre-2021 situation.

Speaking to Polsat, Nawrocki also firmly opposed the introduction of same-sex civil partnerships – another issue the government is divided on – stating that he would veto any such legislation.

“In Poland, we have two genders,” Nawrocki told Polsat. “And, as the constitution states, marriage is a union between a woman and a man.”

In October, a bill to allow such partnerships was published by the government, but since then, it has not proceeded further. It is supported by KO and The Left but has faced resistance from parts of the Third Way. The legislation does not relate to marriage, nor does it recognise more than two genders.

The views expressed by Nawrocki this week were criticised today by his main rival for the presidency, Trzaskowski, the candidate of Tusk’s KO and current mayor of Warsaw.

“On the issue of abortion and civil partnerships, he takes the most conservative position among PiS and PiS-linked politicians,” said Trzaskowski, quoted by the Rzeczpospolita daily.

“I was very saddened by this statement [as] it seemed that even in PiS there is a reflection on this medieval abortion law that was introduced by PiS,” Trzaskowski continued. “It turned out that Nawrocki supports this medieval law. This is something truly extraordinary.”

Some leading figures in PiS, including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, have admitted that pushing for the near-total abortion ban – which was introduced while they were in office – was a “mistake” and contributed to their defeat in the 2023 elections that brought Tusk to power.

Regarding Ukraine, Trzaskowski said that “we all agree that the Volhynia issue must be clarified; however, questioning Ukraine’s membership of the EU and NATO contradicts the Polish national interest”.

Poland’s current president, Andrzej Duda, as well as both the PiS and Tusk governments have been strongly supportive of Ukraine, including its ambitions to join the EU and NATO.

Duda’s second and final term in office ends on 6 August this year. Before then, on 18 May, an election will take place to choose his successor. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, a second-round run-off between the top two candidates will be held on 1 June.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Jakub Wlodek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.