{"id":11614,"date":"2026-02-13T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/11614\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:45:04","slug":"democracy-digest-brussels-takes-hungary-slovakia-to-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/11614\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Digest: Brussels Takes Hungary, Slovakia to Task"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Poland makes its Peace Board position clear; historic NATO post awaits 4-star general<\/p>\n<p>Poland will not join Donald Trump\u2019s so-called Board of Peace, PM Donald Tusk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.pl\/web\/premier\/premier-przed-rbn-bezpieczenstwo-narodowe-to-nie-slogan-to-dla-nas-sprawa-absolutnie-najwazniejsza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">declared<\/a> ahead of Wednesday\u2019s cabinet meeting. His remarks were a response to an invitation Poland received to attend the body\u2019s inaugural session, scheduled for February 19 in the US. Tusk said the decision was driven by concerns over the new organisation\u2019s operating rules, legal status and concrete objectives, which observers say could make it a direct rival to the UN. At the same time, he stressed the government would continue to monitor developments closely, and remain flexible and open to reassessing its position. The statement marks the clearest position yet from Poland\u2019s leadership. Until now, both Tusk and President Karol Nawrocki had <a href=\"https:\/\/balkaninsight.com\/2026\/01\/23\/democracy-digest-orban-signs-up-to-trumps-board-of-peace-nawrocki-prevaricates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">relied on<\/a> diplomatic ambiguity, seeking to preserve strong ties with the US administration while avoiding steps that could undermine Poland\u2019s alliance with Ukraine \u2013 something that, in Warsaw\u2019s view, would inevitably follow from sitting at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and other authoritarian leaders among the roughly 60 invited to join the organisation. From the outset, the invitation hads been a source of visible discomfort for Polish officials, who adopted an unwritten strategy of delaying a decision, citing constitutional procedures \u2013 a tactic that had \u201cproduced good results\u201d, Tusk <a href=\"https:\/\/wyborcza.pl\/7,75398,32594502,tusk-o-mozliwym-wecie-nawrockiego-ws-safe-polska-nie-bedzie.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">told<\/a> reporters on Thursday, before leaving for Brussels to attend an informal summit of EU leaders. \u201cPoland is not, and will not be, anyone\u2019s vassal,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will remain a loyal, reliable ally \u2013 but not a vassal in relations with any country in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a Polish four-star general is set to take the helm of NATO\u2019s Joint Force Command (JFC) Brunssum in the Netherlands, Warsaw\u2019s military leadership <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pap.pl\/aktualnosci\/po-raz-pierwszy-w-historii-polski-oficer-stanie-na-czele-dowodztwa-polaczonego-nato\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">announced<\/a> on Tuesday. The headquarters is one of NATO\u2019s three permanent joint force commands in Europe \u2013 alongside Naples in Italy and Norfolk in the United Kingdom \u2013 and plays a central role in shaping the alliance\u2019s eastern-flank posture, including deterrence and reinforcement planning for Central and Eastern Europe. For the past two decades, JFC Brunssum has been led exclusively by German and Italian officers; a Polish general assuming the role represents \u201ca significant sign of trust in the Polish Armed Forces and in our defence efforts,\u201d Chief of the General Staff Gen. Wieslaw Kukula <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/wieslawkukula\/status\/2021232969025827036\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> on Tuesday. The specific nominee has yet to be announced. Poland currently has only two active four-star generals \u2013 Kukula himself and Gen. Slawomir Wojciechowski, Warsaw\u2019s military representative to the NATO and EU Military Committees \u2013 one of whom is expected to replace Germany\u2019s Gen. Ingo Hertz, who currently holds the post. The move comes as part of a broader reshuffle aimed at strengthening the role of European allies within NATO\u2019s military leadership. On February 6, allies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/en\/news-and-events\/articles\/news\/2026\/02\/06\/european-allies-to-take-on-new-leadership-roles-in-natos-command-structure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">approved<\/a> a new distribution of senior officer responsibility across the NATO Command Structure, with the UK set to lead JFC Norfolk and Italy JFC Naples. Responsibility for JFC Brunssum will rotate between Poland and Germany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Poland makes its Peace Board position clear; historic NATO post awaits 4-star general Poland will not join Donald&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[8619,1410,9077,211,210,3034,9078,4855,2431,184,185,1414,814,9079,3039,1583,74,182,9080,9081,9082,627,241,76,4038],"class_list":["post-11614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-andrej-babis","tag-belarus","tag-belarus-poland-border-crisis","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-czech-republic","tag-digital-freedom","tag-digital-rights","tag-disinformation","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-tusk","tag-economy","tag-energy","tag-energy-focus","tag-hungary","tag-international-relations","tag-nato","tag-poland","tag-radicalisation","tag-reporting-democracy","tag-robert-fico","tag-slovakia","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-viktor-orban"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}