Karol Nawrocki. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s newly elected president, has said that he does not currently support Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.

Source: Nawrocki in an interview with the Hungarian newspaper Mandiner

Details: The winner of the Polish presidential election was asked about his attitude to the idea of Ukraine’s accession to the EU under an accelerated procedure.

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“At the moment, I am against Ukraine’s accession to the European Union,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nawrocki noted that Poland should “support Ukraine from a strategic and geopolitical point of view”.

He added that for him and the entire region, the biggest threat is Russia.

“It is a post-imperial, neo-communist state led by Vladimir Putin, a war criminal. I am very critical of the Russian Federation, where, by the way, I am being persecuted as the president of the Institute of National Memory. I face five years in prison,” Nawrocki said.

Quote: “On the one hand, we must support Ukraine in its conflict with the Russian Federation, but Ukraine must understand that other countries, including Poland and Hungary and other European countries, have their own interests.

For example, Poland has an interest in exhuming the Volyn [tragedy] victims. During the campaign, I did not agree, and as president, I will not agree to unfair competition with Ukraine for Polish agriculture or the logistics sector. We need to reach a compromise and consensus on these issues. I see Ukraine as a country that, although it is very courageous in defending itself against the Russian Federation, must also respect the interests of other countries that otherwise support Ukraine.” [The Volyn tragedy was a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in 1943 during World War II. It was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine’s west. Poland considers the Volyn tragedy a genocide of Poles – ed.].

Background:

  • In the second round of the Polish presidential election, with 100% of the ballots counted, right-wing opposition-backed Karol Nawrocki won 50.89% of the vote, while his rival Rafał Trzaskowski received 49.11%.

  • Nawrocki is officially due to take office on 6 August.

  • In January, presidential candidate Nawrocki stated that he did not see Ukraine “in the EU or NATO”. At the time, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry dismissed Nawrocki’s statements about Ukraine’s future in the EU and NATO as “tendentious and manipulative”.

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