Poland’s liberal coalition is in line for an unprecedented windfall this week as the European Commission approved a €137 billion financial package for the country, despite claims that the cash injection amounts to political favouritism in support of a new regime that continues to clamp down on the opposition.
Under the guise of digital and green investment, Poland is to receive €137 billion, beginning with €60 billion to be dispensed in grants and loans immediately, in comparison to a national budget of €115 billion annually. To neutral observers, this looks like a ‘cash for wokeness’ trade-off.
The EU isn’t bashful about the partisan aspects of its decision, directly linking the move to “horizontal enabling conditions” and an alleged reform of Polish institutions—such as the judiciary—and a commitment to promoting the LGBT agenda.
In a document from a meeting of Commissioners this week, seen by The European Conservative, EU officials overtly expressed political bias towards Warsaw, directly linking the new funding stream to the ability of Tusk and his government to purge right-wing judges in particular.
The document stated that, while the EU was overjoyed at Warsaw’s new direction, Brussels was still concerned about PiS’s remaining institutional influence in the country, in particular the presence of older conservative judges.
The Commission commended the new government for promoting what it called “judicial independence” as well as for putting the country’s legal system under greater EU oversight, and it welcomed moves towards adopting a more liberal stance on LGBT issues.
In a comment to The European Conservative, PiS MEP Anna Zalewska said the EU’s decision this week provided that the “blocking of funds from the National Recovery Funds for Poland had one goal – to return Donald Tusk to power.” Fellow PiS parliamentarian Bogdan Rzońca tweeted that Poland could eventually be crippled by interest payments from some of the loans from Brussels.
Just under half of the funds issued relate to COVID-era recovery funding held back from Warsaw due to a ‘rule-of-law’ dispute where the then-PiS government challenged the legal supremacy of EU courts. At the time, many progressives feared the country was on the path of embracing the Hungarian model of national conservatism, while the war in Ukraine made Poland geopolitically essential for NATO.
Speaking anonymously to Euronews, one official admitted that while Brussels was happy with Tusk, the new Polish government had a lot more to do to appease the EU, particularly in completing the institutional purge of PiS, adding that the EU had all the means to stop the cash flow if needed.
Warsaw returned to Brussels’ good books late last year upon the assumption of power by Europhile Donald Tusk and his three-party rainbow coalition. The progressives then wasted no time in jailing MPs loyal to the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, shutting down the state broadcaster, and even purging the national curriculum, in a calculated move to drag Poland to the left.
The past year has seen a growing EU authoritarian streak towards its member states. Plans leaked in January discussed a coordinated effort to wreck the Hungarian economy should the ruling Fidesz government not change its stance on Ukrainian EU accession.
Despite thinly veiled contempt for Poland’s former conservative government and an express desire to influence lawmaking in the country, the European Commission still maintains that it is impartial on the matter of how individual member states operate domestically.
