“It is important that in such a crucial matter as indebting Poland for 45 years, the president also hears the voice of us, the citizens. All the more so because he was a civic candidate for president,” said Adam Borowski, head of the Warsaw branch of the Gazeta Polska Clubs, speaking on Telewizja Republika and encouraging people to sign an appeal to Karol Nawrocki regarding the SAFE program.
On the president’s desk still lies the bill concerning the EU SAFE loan. At the same time, President Karol Nawrocki, in a joint initiative with the President of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapiński, has proposed an alternative to the European Commission’s loan — the “Polish SEJF 0%.” The second proposal is expected to be discussed soon by leading politicians at the president’s invitation.
For weeks, Adam Borowski, head of the Warsaw Gazeta Polska Club, has been a strong advocate of rejecting the bill concerning SAFE.
“SAFE is a deadly threat to the very existence of our state. The ‘conditionality’ written into the project may become a tool of brutal blackmail. Just as after the adoption of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO), Poland did not receive the funds allocated to it as long as the United Right government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was in power — a government that effectively opposed the migration pact, the Green Deal, climate policy, and various ideological excesses promoted by the EU,” he argued during a recent protest in front of the Presidential Palace.
He also spoke about the threats stemming from the European loan on Friday on Telewizja Republika.
“It is important that in such a crucial matter as indebting Poland for 45 years, he also hears our voice — the voice of citizens. Especially since he was a civic candidate for president,” he said.
He stressed that he sees two major threats in the EU proposal.
“First, the mechanism of conditionality, well known from previous years. Second, we will be forced to purchase weapons we do not need with this money — weapons produced in Germany or in German-owned factories in Poland,” Borowski indicated.
As he emphasized, in light of the joint initiative of the president and the NBP governor, it is even more important to sign the appeal calling on the president not to sign the SAFE bill.
Online appeal
Opposition to the program can now also be expressed online. Opponents of the EU loan have prepared an appeal addressed to the head of state, urging him not to sign the law implementing SAFE.
“The SAFE law is not ‘aid’ but a gigantic debt trap that, under the pretext of defense, hands the keys to Poland’s security to officials in Brussels and Berlin. In exchange for a €44 billion loan that generations of Poles will repay, we lose the right to independently purchase modern weapons and weaken our alliance with the United States — all in order to finance Western arms corporations and submit to the political blackmail of ‘conditionality,’” reads the description of the initiative.
“This is the last moment to stop this process: only the PRESIDENT’S VETO can save Polish sovereignty from the dictates of foreign bureaucracy. Your signature today is the only barrier protecting Poland from becoming a debtor-hostage. Do not wait until it is too late — sign the petition now!” the organizers appeal.
The creators of the petition listed five reasons why the SAFE program is, in their words, a “deadly threat to the Republic of Poland.” They argue that the loan deprives the state of the ability to make sovereign decisions about how and with what it defends itself. They point out that the €44 billion from the program is an “astronomical sum” that “Polish taxpayers will repay for decades,” while it will be spent “according to the guidelines of the European Commission.” They also warn about the dangerous mechanism of conditionality.
They further assess that adopting the program would violate the Constitution because it is being introduced in breach of democratic principles. They also stress that SAFE would push Poland into a chain of “European procedures, committees, and arrangements that will prove ineffective in a moment of crisis.”
“Do not let anyone convince you that ‘nothing can be done.’ Your voice is ammunition in the fight for a free Poland. Massive support for the veto will give the President legitimacy to firmly oppose a government that is selling out our independence. Let us show that there are millions of us — people for whom independence is priceless,” the organizers appeal, encouraging people to sign.
The appeal is available HERE.