The company ICEYE, which is presenting itself as the supposed voice of the “Polish industry”, is calling for the adoption of SAFE. The same company is executing a strategic contract worth nearly €2 billion with the German conglomerate Rheinmetall, aimed at achieving “independence” from the United States. Moreover, sitting on the board of its Polish subsidiary for years has been an influential Civic Platform activist who, in 2015, advocated accepting Syrians into Poland following Angela Merkel’s encouragement of migration.
In recent weeks, unprecedented political pressure has been exerted by the ruling camp on the opposition regarding the adoption of the EU mechanism SAFE (Security Action for Europe).
Within this narrative, the government is allegedly supported by what is portrayed as a united voice of the Polish defense industry. In a statement published by the Polish Press Agency (PAP), subsequently reproduced across mainstream media outlets (for example, under the headline: “Polish Arms Industry Sees a Revolution and Billions in SAFE”), “representatives of the Polish defense industry” described the program as an “unprecedented opportunity.” Among the signatories, alongside the state-owned Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), was ICEYE. The issue is that this is not a Polish entity but a Finnish one; moreover, the company maintains close business ties with the beneficiary of EU billions, the German conglomerate Rheinmetall, and the head of ICEYE Polska is a long-standing activist of the Young Democrats and Civic Platform.
According to data from the National Court Register, ICEYE Polska sp. z o.o. is wholly owned by the Finnish microsatellite manufacturer ICEYE Oy. More importantly, however, the Finnish parent company is a strategic partner of the German conglomerate that stands to benefit the most from the SAFE program.
As reported in early February 2026 by the Financial Times, Rheinmetall, no longer content with producing only tanks and ammunition, is aggressively expanding into the space sector. The newspaper revealed that the German conglomerate concluded an agreement with ICEYE. The aim is to build reconnaissance satellites which, as the FT indicated, are intended to free Berlin from reliance on U.S. data.
German MPs in December approved the company’s first satellite production contract, worth up to €2bn as part of a joint venture with Finland’s Iceye. The FT last week revealed the company was also in talks over a joint bid to build an equivalent to Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service for the German military,”
the British daily reported.
Rafał Modrzewski, co-founder of ICEYE, did not conceal his enthusiasm for this cooperation in his interview with the British newspaper, pointing there was “not any other company in Europe that can deliver such capabilities so quickly.”
An even more telling picture emerges upon examining the individuals managing the Polish branch of the company. On the management board of ICEYE Polska, alongside Rafał Modrzewski, sits Witold Witkowicz. He is a figure well known within the structures of Donald Tusk’s party. Between 2003 and 2006 and again from 2009 to 2014, he held significant roles (board member and supervisory body member) in the Young Democrats association, the official youth wing of Civic Platform (its first chairman was Sławomir Nowak). His career was not limited to youth activism. Witkowicz was an active member of Tusk’s political camp: from 2007, he served as a Civic Platform city councilor in Katowice, later becoming head of the Platform’s councilors’ club in Katowice, as well as director of the office of influential Civic Platform MEP Jan Olbrycht.
In 2015, when Western and Southern Europe were flooded by a wave of immigrants from Asia, encouraged by Angela Merkel’s declarations, Witkowicz, as head of the Civic Platform councilors’ club, called on Katowice to accept newcomers and argued that the city should declare its willingness to cooperate with the then Civic Platform–Polish People’s Party (PO–PSL) government on the matter. “As a relatively affluent city with very low unemployment, Katowice offers hope for fairly painless integration,” he said. His club at the time prepared a resolution stating: “Moved by the immense tragedy of refugees forced by war, religious intolerance, and persecution to leave their homes and families and seek new places to live in peace for their families, the Katowice City Council declares the city’s readiness to provide material and organizational support as part of the European chain of assistance to those in need.”
In December 2017, as a Civic Platform councilor, Witkowicz strongly protested against renaming Katowice’s Wilhelm Szewczyk Square, named after a staunch anti-Semite and Stalinist who brutally attacked Home Army (AK) soldiers and was a functionary of the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR) and later the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR), to Maria and Lech Kaczyński Square. “Will we allow the most important square in Katowice to bear such a politicized name?” Witkowicz thundered during the council session.