Polish opposition presidential candidate says ‘European elites’ partly to blame for Ukraine war

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki, supported by Poland’s largest opposition party, said Thursday that “European elites” were partly to blame for the war in Ukraine, in a major shift in rhetoric among one of the US’s main European allies and Ukraine backers.

“Russia started the war in Ukraine…(and) is the perpetrator, but the attitude of the EU elites also contributed to the war,” Nawrocki told supporters at a rally in Warsaw.

“The chaos Europe is in today is caused by the decisions of the European elites towards (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, which brought us war and Russia’s attack on Ukraine,” he said.

“A pact with Putin was signed thanks to the European elites and the current prime minister of the Polish government, Donald Tusk,” he added. “Europe has been bogged down for many years in subsidizing Russia, which caused the war.”

Nawrocki went on to call Tusk “the butler of the European elites”

The opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party has been one of the main anti-Russian voices in Poland, but narratives of Ukrainian wartime atrocities against Poles and Ukrainian farmers benefiting at the expense of Polish farmers have fanned a shift in Poles’ attitudes towards Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Tusk’s coalition is currently operating in cohabitation with PiS-backed Andrzej Duda, whose role as president means he can stymie legislation. The election of Nawrocki would be a major spanner in the works for Tusk’s ongoing plans.

Poland has said it will not put its own troops on the ground in Ukraine, despite other European countries suggesting they would do so in any peacekeeping force.

Tusk hit back, accusing Nawrocki and the PiS of promoting “the Kremlin’s narrative.”

Rafal Trzaskowski is the presidential candidate of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO) and is leading in the polls with around 34%, ahead of Nawrocki in second with 24%.

The first round of the elections will take place on May 18.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski is scheduled to travel to the US on Thursday to hold consultations with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the daily Rzeczpospolita reported.

The talks are to concern Ukraine after the US pivot away from support for Kyiv and verbal attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by his US counterpart Donald Trump.