President Karol Nawrocki and the President of the National Bank of Poland, Prof. Adam Glapiński, have presented a proposal to protect Poland’s financial interests and national security. Instead of burdening the state with an EU loan, they propose the “Polish SEJF 0%” – a large-scale program to finance the armed forces directly through investment activities conducted by the Polish central bank. As early as Tuesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the Minister of National Defence, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, will appear at the Presidential Palace to respond to the proposal. According to the Presidential Chancellery, the current government is pressuring the head of state to secure a European loan primarily to “plug the budget deficit.”
A key high-level meeting will take place on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. The Head of the Presidential Chancellery, Zbigniew Bogucki, invited the prime minister, the defence minister, and the NBP president on behalf of the president. As confirmed by presidential spokesperson Rafał Leśkiewicz, the participation of the most important political figures in the talks is already certain.
The subject of the debate will be the “Polish SEJF 0%” program, a proposal jointly presented last Wednesday by Karol Nawrocki and Adam Glapiński.
For some time, the ruling camp has been pushing to implement the European SAFE program. Under it, around €43.7 billion would go to the Polish government, with 89% intended to support domestic arms manufacturers. The funds are planned for military needs, support for the Police and the Border Guard, and the protection of cyberspace. However, this European support is in reality a large loan, carrying an interest rate of about 3%, and its repayment would burden Polish society until 2070. In an interview with RMF FM, Rafał Leśkiewicz pointed directly to what he described as the government’s intentions. He assessed that Donald Tusk’s cabinet wants to tap European funds to “plug the budget deficit.”
The actions of the Council of Ministers have met with a firm stance at the Presidential Palace. “Hence this pressure on the president, who is not yielding to it,” the spokesperson emphasized. The head of state has a deadline to either veto the act or sign it into law, implementing the European loan. “We have time until March 20,” Rafał Leśkiewicz reminded. Asked whether both initiatives could operate simultaneously, effectively creating “two SAFEs,” the spokesperson explained that, for now, Karol Nawrocki is simply “considering different options.”
Gold, currencies, and the independence of the NBP
The Presidential Palace’s response to the government’s plans is the “SEJF 0%” initiative, described by the president as “a concrete, Polish, safe and sovereign alternative.” It is directed to the Council of Ministers as a cost-free proposal “that is an alternative to the EU SAFE.” The mechanism would allow Poland to bypass Brussels’ loan procedures and carry out major military purchases using its own national capital.
“This is a solution that the government should consider very carefully, because if we are talking about the EU SAFE, we are talking about a loan bearing around 3% interest (…) On the other hand, we have a solution that will allow us to use the reserves of the National Bank of Poland, without depleting those reserves, to finance the Polish army, and it will cost Poland nothing,” the presidential spokesperson stated.
“We will not reduce our gold reserves. We will not reduce our foreign-currency reserves. (…) However, through an investment process based on these reserves, we can finance the Polish army,”
he clarified firmly.
It turns out that detailed analyses within the Presidential Chancellery had been underway for many months. During work on the government’s bill, specific amendments had already been proposed, but some of them were ignored in the final version of the law. “We are prepared very thoroughly,” Leśkiewicz emphasized. He added: “At the same time, we were naturally conducting parallel work and analyses related to the ‘SEJF 0%’ project.” As the spokesperson revealed, the final concept of the program, “which made it possible to present it to the public”, was developed only recently.
The work was kept secret
When asked who the main “architect” of this innovative financial mechanism is, Leśkiewicz said it was a joint idea by Karol Nawrocki and the central bank’s head. However, he added, “Of course, the initiative here came from President Glapiński, who clearly said: we have reserves.” Thanks to massive profits generated by the national bank, amounting to PLN 185 billion over the last 30 months, Poland has gained the ability to finance historic military rearmament on its own sovereign terms.
Work on the Polish alternative was kept secret to avoid premature political turbulence. When asked whether the leader of Law and Justice, Jarosław Kaczyński, had known about the plans earlier, the presidential spokesperson categorically dismissed the speculation.
“It is not important who knew and who did not know. What matters is that this information appeared on Wednesday. No one had been publicly informed earlier. We did not present this concept because we wanted to be certain of our solution,”
Leśkiewicz concluded.