Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki has labelled the European Union as a “dying star” that requires fundamental reform.
In his annual address to the diplomatic corps in Warsaw on January 15, Conservative (PiS) aligned Nawrocki slammed centralisation in the EU and many of its policies, including the Green Deal, the Migration Pact and the Mercosur agreement between the EU and South American states.
Poland’s government has opposed the EU-Mercosur agreement but failed to build a blocking minority and is presently mulling taking the agreement to the European Court of Justice.
Nawrocki argued that Brussels was imposing policies that were widely opposed by public opinion across the member states.
“If we were to compare today’s European Union to one of the stars visible in the night sky, I fear that it would increasingly resemble a dying star,” Nawrocki said.
“It is worth bearing in mind that the death of such stars can be highly dangerous, as it can lead to the formation of black holes. I would like the European Union to avoid this pessimistic scenario”, he added.
Nawrocki said that “Poland should lead the reformist camp of the European Union. This camp should be open to all those countries that do not agree with the continuation of existing policies, but do not want to be considered opponents of the idea of a united Europe.”
This is not the first time Nawrocki has criticised the way EU institutions are “usurping power” and attempting to achieve “integration via coercion” rather than on the basis of consensus between sovereign nation states. He made similar remarks in a lecture at Charles University in Prague, last year.
In that speech he called for the scrapping of the post of the President of the European Council and for strengthening the rights of EU member states at the expense of EU institutions.
Nawrocki, who won the Polish presidential election last year by defeating mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate of the centre-left Tusk coalition, ran on a platform critical of Brussels and supportive of greater national autonomy.
PiS, the party which supported Nawrocki, during its 8 years in office clashed regularly with EU institutions over judicial reforms, migration, environmental issues and the pace of European integration.
Since taking office in August of last year Nawrocki has frequently clashed with the Tusk government by vetoing government bills such as the legislation to implement the EU’s Digital Services Act.
Nawrocki and the Tusk government have also failed to see eye to eye over foreign policy matters, with the president backing the US President’s peace overtures with regard to the war in Ukraine and refusing to criticise the Americans for their bid to take over Greenland.
Tusk, on the other hand, has been open about criticising Trump’s stance on Ukraine and has even said that for the US to take over Greenland would be “the end of the world as we know it.”
