Polish President Karol Nawrocki told the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Texas that Russia is a regime that represents “corruption and violence”, not traditional values.
Nawrocki, an ally of the opposition Conservatives (PiS) in Poland and of US President Donald Trump, told the Texas gathering that Russia’s aggression poses a growing threat to Europe.
“In Europe today, we face an aggressive Russia. A regime that invades its neighbours. A regime that destroys cities. A regime that believes power gives it the right to dominate others,” said Nawrocki.
The Polish president added: “And today, that same regime tries to tell the world: ‘We are the defenders of traditional values’. This is a lie. Russia does not defend conservatism. Russia represents corruption and violence.”
Poland’s head of state has been consistent in his warnings about Russia. Moscow has attacked him for taking down Soviet-era monuments which glorified the Red Army for freeing Poland from the occupying Germans during the Second World War.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the global Right has disagreed over how to address the question of Russian power and influence.
Some, such as Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, the German opposition AfD and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, do not see Russia as a threat to Europe and favour dialogue with Russia.
Others, such as Giorgia Meloni and PiS, have backed Ukraine and regard Russia as aggressive and imperialist in nature.
This debate within the European Right also reflects divisions over Russia among US Republicans.
However, most of the European Right are in favour of close working with the US Right, seeing it as a countervailing force to the Left in Europe.
Nawrocki, whom Trump endorsed ahead of Poland’s presidential election last year, also used his CPAC speech to highlight how Poland was an ally the US could rely on. Polish soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder and shed blood with the US in Afghanistan and Iraq, he argued.
This may have been in answer to President Trump’s recent remarks in which he questioned whether NATO allies had done very much to support the US in Afghanistan.
The Polish president also spoke out in favour of NATO itself.
“We believe in our Polish-American alliance, but we also believe in the North Atlantic Alliance, the most powerful military alliance in the history of the world,” he said, but also backed US calls for increased defence spending by NATO states.
“In Poland, we understand this,” said Nawrocki, pointing to the fact that his country now spends five per cent on defence, the highest relative level in NATO. He also highlighted how Poland hosts US troops at the cost of Polish taxpayers.
“That is why we stand as the eastern guard of Europe, of Western civilisation, which we defend against tyranny, lies, and violence from the East, from Russia, though not only from there,” he declared.
Nawrocki also said Poland wanted to see “urgent repair” of the European Union’s energy and migration policy. He also said “Poland made the right decision in joining” the EU and said that “we want to be part” of it.
His remarks on the EU were interpreted as the president’s answer to accusations by the Polish centre-left government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, that Nawrocki is pushing the country towards “Polexit” from the EU.
