Trump is the only leader who can end threat of Russia, Poland’s president tells BBC

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

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.

Donald Trump is the only world leader who can protect Europe from the threat of Russia, Polish President Karol Nawrocki has told the BBC. He called on Europeans to support Trump in doing so.

Speaking on a visit to London, during which Nawrocki met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Polish president also declared that he shares Trump’s concerns about the direction in which the European Union is heading.

“We in Poland don’t know [any] Russia [other] than an aggressive Russia,” said Nawrocki, referring to his country’s long history of conflict with its eastern neighbour. “Russia is still a threat to Europe and Donald Trump is the only leader who can solve this and we have to support him in this process.”

The Polish president, who is aligned with Poland’s right-wing opposition, is a close ally of Trump, who supported Nawrocki’s presidential campaign last year and invited him to the White House shortly after he took office.

“The United States is a country which guarantees Europe’s security and this is something that I’m grateful for to President Donald Trump,” Nawrocki told the BBC.

Asked if he thinks Trump is too friendly towards Putin, Nawrocki said only that he has “consistently” told Trump “that I completely do not trust Putin”.

On the question of Trump’s recent demands that Greenland be brought under US control, Nawrocki said that he believes “discussion should remain a matter between the Prime Minister of Denmark and President Trump”.

That represents a different view from Poland’s more liberal, pro-EU government, which has expressed solidarity with Denmark and warned Trump against violating Greenland’s sovereignty.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk last week co-authored a statement to that effect with Denmark’s prime minister and the leaders of the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Nawrocki also told the BBC that he has “a very similar point of view” to Trump when it comes to the idea that the European Union has been heading in the wrong direction: “problems with immigrants, [with] ideology [being placed] above politics”.

“Poland joined the EU to have more freedom and not have more restrictions…[but] today it is heading in a totally different direction,” he continued. “Yes, I’m critical if the EU wants to change the Polish [judicial] system, if the EU wants to tell the Polish people what to eat while destroying Polish agriculture.”

More broadly, the conservative Nawrocki argued that Europeans “are detaching ourselves from the values which have been a part of our DNA for a thousand years” and instead “trying to impose upon ourselves a new temporary fashion”.

“This brings Europe to a turning point…[and] my appeal is, let us go back to our roots, and then there will be a bright future in front of Europe and in front of the United States, in this permanent alliance,” he concluded.

In November, Nawrocki gave a major speech outlining his vision for reform of the EU to ensure that it infringes less on national sovereignty, stops “dictating the terms” of member states’ political or judicial systems, and ceases trying to “regulate the entire lives of citizens”.

The president’s critics have accused him of pushing, intentionally or not, for “Polexit” from the EU, support for which has been rising over the last year.

However, Nawrocki emphasised to the BBC that he wants Poland to remain in the EU and that his criticism and calls for reform are part of normal democratic discussion.

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: Mikołaj Bujak/KPRP

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.