Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said Poland will not join the Board of Peace initiated by US President Donald Trump any time soon.
Uncertainties over the board’s structure and goals were given as the reason.
Speaking ahead of yesterday’s meeting of the National Security Council, called by the opposition Conservatives (PiS)-allied President Karol Nawrocki, Tusk confirmed Poland had received an open invitation to the board’s first meeting scheduled for February 19 in the US, but said that the offer would be refused.
“This is the moment to clearly state that under current circumstances—concerning the board’s principles, legal status, and primary aims, including reconstruction in Gaza, Poland will not join,” Tusk said.
“We will continue to monitor the situation keeping an open mind” he added, speaking on behalf of the centre-left government he leads.
Nawrocki, an ally of Trump, attended a signing ceremony for the board’s founding charter at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January but did not sign the document on the grounds that he needed the Polish Government’s and parliament’s agreement.
On February 11, he told a meeting of the National Security Council, an advisory body made up of officials from the government, parliament and the President’s office, that the government needed to produce a “specific, formal position on this matter”.
“At this stage, there are no recommendations, no factual analysis, no reports – neither positive nor negative,” Nawrocki said.
“I appeal to the government to present a specific, substantive recommendation to the National Security Council, regardless of what it may be. The Polish state needs a responsible decision in this matter, not a comfortable silence.”
Nawrocki made no secret of his wish for Poland to be involved with Board of Peace and addressed the issue of how he could justify sitting on a board to which Russian President Vladimir Putin has also been invited.
“I would sit down with anyone if the interests of Poland required it,” he said. He noted that he is personally on a wanted list in Russia for overseeing the removal of Soviet-era monuments from public spaces in Poland.
Nawrocki added that Poland is a member of the UN and wants to join the G20 group – where Russia is represented.
He also condemned what he called “blatant disinformation” being spread that Poland would have to pay $1 billion (€840 million) to join. “There would be no such fee for taking up the offer of a seat,” he said.
Nawrocki then attacked the Polish ruling coalition over the Speaker of parliament Włodzimierz Czarzasty’s links to Russia.
Stories have appeared over the past week in the Polish media about Czarzasty. He is chairperson of the New Left party — part of Tusk’s ruling coalition — and has for several years been connected in his business dealings with Svetlana Chestnich, a Russian businesswoman who has extensive links with Putin’s entourage in Saint Petersburg.
Nawrocki told the National Security Council: “There must be clear and unequivocal verification” of Speaker Czarzasty and all his dealings.
“This issue concerns the standards of state security and how state services should respond to information about possible eastern social and business contacts of the Speaker” the President said.
Nawrocki added that hybrid activities conducted against Poland or any information raising doubts about those holding the highest offices in the country must be reliably clarified for the sake of Poland’s security.
He recalled the case of Russian agent Pavel Rubtsev who had ingratiated himself with mainstream Polish media and opposition politicians before he was charged with spying. He left the country in a prisoner swap brokered by the US administration in 2024. Nawrocki said that “should serve as a warning to everyone”.
He justified his concern further by pointing to the fact that the Speaker is de facto a president-in-waiting as he takes over the president’s powers should the head of state suffer death, incapacitation or resign.
“The Speaker is one heartbeat away from the presidency. If God decided to recall the President of Poland, tomorrow those duties would be performed by Włodzimierz Czarzasty,” Nawrocki said.
Czarzasty’s view is that, as Speaker, he is under surveillance by the security services and that it is Nawrocki who should explain his alleged links to the underworld, which were alluded to during the presidential election.
But Nawrocki said he has undergone security vetting many times, under different governments and prime ministers, and had been granted access to classified information in his earlier capacity as head of the National Institute of Remembrance.
He noted that Czarzasty was never authorised to have such access and, when serving on a parliamentary committee before becoming Speaker, he had to leave meetings of the Security Committee when classified security matters were discussed.
“For heaven’s sake, we have the right to know whether the Speaker has security clearance to access top secret information and if he does not, he should not be Speaker,” concluded Nawrocki.
Czarzasty was recently involved in a spat with US ambassador to Poland Tom Rose. The Speaker said the US was no longer a reliable ally of Poland and Europe and said he would not support Trump’s quest for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Rose hit back by saying he was severing all contact with Poland’s Speaker of parliament.
