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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.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has warned that there are still foreign powers that want to “get their dirty paws” on Poland and “suck the blood out of our nation”.
He emphasised that, because such forces use local collaborators to establish and maintain their rule, it is vital that Poles “open their eyes” to reality and “elect patriotic politicians”. In May, an election will take place to choose a successor to Duda, whose term ends in August.
Prezydent @AndrzejDuda podczas Narodowego Dnia Pamięci Żołnierzy Wyklętych: Nie myślcie sobie moi drodzy, że nie ma tutaj pozostałości i wysłanników tych którzy ciemiężyli. Nie myślcie, że nie ma tych, którzy nie są namiestnikami tych, którym niewygodne jest istnienie wolnej i…
— Kancelaria Prezydenta (@prezydentpl) March 1, 2025
The president was speaking on Saturday at a ceremony marking the annual day of remembrance for the so-called “cursed soldiers” (żołnierze wyklęci). That term is used to describe the underground resistance forces that fought against the imposition of communism in Poland by the Soviet Union after World War Two.
In his speech, Duda said that, unlike Nazi Germany, which had sent its own officials to oversee occupied Poland during the war, the subsequent communist occupation was “more cunning” because it relied on “Soviet Poles, traitors to the homeland, to subordinate us to a foreign power”.
He then warned Poles “not to think that there are no remnants and envoys of the oppressors” in Poland today, “that there are not those who are governors for those for whom the existence of a free, sovereign, independent Poland is inconvenient”.
They “would like to rule this land, to put their dirty paws on it, to draw from its resources and suck the blood of our nation, as has already happened many times in our history”, warned Duda. “Do not think that it is not so.”
Duda did not specifically name either the foreign forces he believes want to control Poland or the “governors” who represent them in Poland. But he gave indications that, in the latter case, he was referring to the current ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, with whom Duda has regularly clashed.
As an example of an action designed to diminish Poland and its independence, the president referred to those who had “slowed down the construction of the [LNG] gas port in Świnoujście and built it for eight years, when it could have been built in two”.
Plans for an LNG terminal in the Polish city of Świnoujście were first approved in 2006 by a government led by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, with which Duda is aligned. However, after a Tusk-led government came to power in 2007, construction was not completed until 2015.
PiS, which is now the main opposition party, and its leader Jarosław Kaczyński have regularly accused Tusk of representing foreign powers – in particular German and Russian – that want to subjugate Poland.
In his first remarks since the ruling party lost its majority at Sunday's elections, Jarosław Kaczyński has suggested that "external forces" – especially Germany and Russia – are behind the opposition parties now set to form a new government https://t.co/iHuHEMmUik
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 21, 2023
“I call on my fellow countrymen to open their eyes and understand what this game is about,” said Duda on Saturday. “This game is about a free, sovereign, independent Poland, about its existence.”
“Take a Polish history textbook, see how many times [Poland] was in danger, how many times it was attacked…and draw conclusions from that,” he continued. “Historical processes repeat themselves. This is not a joke.”
“Do not delude yourselves that if others come here – whatever they call themselves – we will be better off than when we are alone in our own country,” said the president. “What is needed is a wise, patriotic policy aimed at implementing Polish interests. And I ask you to elect such politicians.”
May's presidential election "will be a referendum on rejecting Tusk’s government", said opposition candidate @NawrockiKn in a speech today
He pledged to lower taxes, end Ukraine's "indecent" treatment of Poland, and reject the EU's "sick" climate policies https://t.co/pBCnlmH60Q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 2, 2025
Duda, who was first elected president in 2015, must leave office in August this year after the end of his second and final five-year term. On 18 May, an election will be held to choose his successor, with a second-round run-off on 1 June if no candidate wins over 50% of the vote.
Duda has not officially endorsed anyone, but he did say in December that PiS-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki has “views closest to mine” among those standing.
Nawrocki is currently second in the polls, with support of around 23%. The frontrunner is Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO), whose support is averaging around 34%. Far-right candidate Sławomir Mentzen has recently been rising in the polls, reaching around 17%.
Far-right candidate @SlawomirMentzen's rise in the polls has turned Poland's presidential election into a three-horse race
Mentzen has managed to detoxify his party and has benefited from other candidates mainstreaming its positions, writes @danieltilles1 https://t.co/Ql9LihJ7tu
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 28, 2025
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: Przemysław Keler/KPRP
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.
