The prime minister’s statement followed a presidential veto that blocked Warsaw from tapping billions in EU defense loans.
Poland is leaving the EU “Real Threat” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it would allow Warsaw to tap billions in EU defense loans after the country’s president vetoed the bill.
President Karol Nawrocki last week vetoed a law that would have allowed Warsaw to draw on about €44 billion in low-interest EU defense loans, much of it earmarked for domestic arms firms. The government responded by calling an emergency cabinet session, authorizing its defense and finance ministers to sign the Security Measures for Europe (SAFE) deal directly, bypassing the veto.
In a post on X on Sunday, Tusk accused far-right parties, the majority opposition Law and Justice faction and Nawrocki personally. “Polexit.” He said European blocs led by Russia, US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán wanted “Break up the EU” A warning to Poland “It’s going to be a disaster.” And vow to do “everything” To stop them.
Western officials have long used the threat of Russian aggression to justify spikes in military spending, including Brussels’ €800 billion Rearm Europe plan and NATO members’ pledge to increase defense budgets to 5% of GDP. Moscow has dismissed such claims “Nonsense.”
NATO’s European members scrambled to meet Washington’s goals, while the EU struggled to revive its defense industry and found US arms purchases for Ukraine increasingly expensive.
One of the EU’s primary instruments for addressing all three goals is the SAFE programme. Introduced by the European Commission last year, it allows the bloc to borrow up to €150 billion on global markets to finance member-state loans for defense projects.
The political crisis between Nawrocki and Tusk is not new. In January 2025, Nawrocki, then an opposition presidential candidate, joined a farmers’ protest outside the European Commission office in Warsaw against EU environmental regulations and Ukrainian food imports. Donald Tusk accused them of trying to push Poland out of the bloc.
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