An online petition has been launched in which its authors urge President Karol Nawrocki to veto the law implementing the SAFE program. The initiators argue that the EU loan constitutes a “mortal threat to the Republic of Poland.”
“Your vote is ammunition in the fight for a free Poland,” the organizers stress, encouraging people to sign the appeal.
On Thursday, the Senate adopted some of the amendments to the law implementing the SAFE program. These were changes proposed by representatives of the ruling coalition. However, amendments put forward by Law and Justice (PiS) were rejected. Opposition lawmakers sought to add a preamble stating that no “conditionality mechanism” could be applied to the funds from the loan. In their view, such a mechanism could be used by the European Union to blackmail member states that do not align with its policies.
These concerns are not limited to opposition politicians. The possibility of Poland being subjected to pressure was one of the reasons behind a protest against the program held on Saturday in front of the Presidential Palace. The event, organized by the “Gazeta Polska” Clubs, brought together many participants who appealed to President Karol Nawrocki to veto the law once it reaches his desk.
“SAFE is a mortal threat to the statehood of our homeland. The ‘conditionality’ embedded in 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 granted to it as long as the United Right government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was in power—because it effectively opposed the migration pact, the Green Deal, climate policy, and various ideological excesses promoted by the EU,” said Adam Borowski, head of the Warsaw “GP” club, during the gathering.
An Online Appeal
Opposition to the program can now also be expressed online. Critics of the EU loan have prepared an appeal addressed to the head of state, calling on him not to sign the SAFE implementation law.
“The SAFE Act is not ‘assistance,’ but a gigantic debt trap which, under the guise of defense, hands over the keys to Poland’s security to officials in Brussels and Berlin. In exchange for a €44 billion loan—one that generations of Poles will repay—we lose the right to independently purchase modern weapons and weaken our alliance with the United States, all 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 a PRESIDENTIAL VETO can save Polish sovereignty from the diktat 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 urge.
The authors of the petition list five reasons why the SAFE program allegedly poses a “mortal threat to the Republic.” They argue that the loan deprives the state of the sovereign ability to decide how and with what it defends itself. They describe the €44 billion as an “astronomical amount” that “the Polish taxpayer will repay for decades,” to be spent “according to European Commission guidelines.” They warn about the risks of the conditionality mechanism, claim that adopting the program would violate the Constitution due to alleged breaches of democratic principles, and assert that SAFE would entangle Poland in 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 vote is ammunition in the fight for a free Poland. Massive support for a veto will give the President the mandate to firmly resist a government that is selling out our independence. Let us show that there are millions of us—for whom independence is priceless,” the organizers conclude, encouraging people to sign.
The appeal is available HERE.