Address by Polish President Karol Nawrocki on 12 March 2026, outlining his veto of the legislation enabling the government to tap almost 44 billion euros from the EU’s SAFE defence financing initiative. Photo: Screenshot of YouTube / Prezydent RP

At a moment when European governments are scrambling to accelerate defence spending, Poland has found itself locked in a domestic institutional clash as President Karol Nawrocki on Thursday evening vetoed legislation enabling Warsaw to tap almost 44 billion euros from the EU’s SAFE defence financing scheme.

The veto by the opposition-allied president illustrates the deepening divisions between Poland’s presidency – politically aligned with the nationalist Law and Justice camp – and the pro-EU government, in this case triggering a confrontation with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition over how to finance the country’s massive military build-up.

The SAFE initiative – a 150-billion-euro EU scheme designed to strengthen Europe’s defence industry and help member states expand military spending – was expected to provide Poland with access to 43.7 billion euros in financing.

In a televised address announcing the veto, Nawrocki argued the mechanism would burden the country with long-term debt. “The SAFE mechanism is a massive foreign loan taken out for 45 years in a foreign currency,” the president said, warning the arrangement could leave Poland repaying far more than it borrows.

He also framed the decision in terms of sovereignty. “I will not sign a bill that undermines our sovereignty, independence, economic and military security,” Nawrocki said.

Instead, the president proposed an alternative funding approach – described by his allies as “SAFE 0 percent” – which would rely on domestic resources rather than EU borrowing.

The veto drew an immediate reaction from Tusk, whose pro-European coalition had supported the legislation as a way to secure cheap financing for defence investments at a time of heightened security risks in Central Europe. “The president has lost the chance to act like a patriot. Shame!” Tusk wrote on social media shortly after the announcement.

Despite the veto, the government signalled that the dispute may not end Poland’s participation in the programme. Tusk said the cabinet is preparing a “plan B” that could allow Warsaw to access the EU funds through alternative legal or administrative mechanisms.

Analysts say the confrontation is another example of the growing institutional divide between Poland’s presidency and the pro-EU coalition government of Tusk. “It was expected, but unnecessary and harmful,” Piotr Kuczynski, chief analyst at the investment house Xelion, said. “It should not be happening.”

Nawrocki’s veto cut against a fairly broad consensus. A poll conducted by IBRiS showed 58.4 per cent of Poles wanted the president to sign the legislation enabling the program. The defence industry, too – both state-owned and private segments – had lined up behind the scheme. So did parts of the military establishment: Chief of the General Staff Gen. Wieslaw Kukula and Armaments Agency head Gen. Artur Kuptel both publicly backed it.

“Regardless of the substantive arguments – or those presented as such – the clash over SAFE is effectively a personal vote of no confidence by the president, as commander-in-chief, in the country’s top generals who have put the authority of their service behind this debate,” said Marek Swierczynski, a defence analyst at Polityka Insight think tank.

For now, the question of whether Warsaw will tap the EU funds remains unresolved, leaving the financing of one of Europe’s most ambitious military build-ups tied to the next move in the country’s institutional standoff.