Konrad Szymański, who served as Poland’s minister for European affairs under former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, wrote that parts of the Polish right are repeating mistakes that helped lead Britain to Brexit.
In his view, the danger lies less in a formal political plan and more in a long-running process of radicalization that has escaped the control of mainstream conservative leaders.
Szymański argued that for years the Polish right reduced European integration mainly to access to EU money, rather than presenting it as a broader political and economic project.
When debates later turned to climate policy, trade, competition, and migration many voters reacted with surprise and resentment, he said, summed up by the slogan: “This is not the Union we joined.”
He described the dispute over the rule of law as the key turning point.
That conflict centered on judicial changes introduced by the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, including a 2019 law seen by critics as disciplining judges.
Szymański said the dispute damaged Poland’s credibility in Brussels and contributed to the freezing of funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, an EU-backed post-pandemic financing program.
According to Szymański, the right has since tried to cover its own mistakes by promoting a narrative that Poland was somehow deceived by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm.
He said this helped create what he called a founding myth of anti-European resentment.
He also pointed to the role of media ecosystems and online algorithms, saying they trap right-wing voters in information bubbles saturated with crude anti-EU messaging.
He wrote that false or distorted claims about energy, migration, transport and agriculture now spread more easily than arguments about the benefits of EU membership.
Szymański warned that the Polish right is losing the ability to defend EU membership in rational terms, even when some of its leaders understand in private how important that membership is.
He said European issues are now being driven by political emotion rather than strategic calculation.
Konrad Szymański. Photo: Kancelaria Sejmu
His remarks came after President Karol Nawrocki and leading conservative politician Przemysław Czarnek called for Poland to leave the EU Emissions Trading System, the bloc’s carbon market.
Marek Borowski, a former Speaker of Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, reacted sharply, saying such a move would place Poland on a direct path toward Polexit.
Borowski accused PiS politicians of hypocrisy, arguing that they attack EU policies they once accepted while gradually turning public opinion against the bloc.
Szymański made a similar point, warning that British Conservatives also played with Euroskepticism for years before losing control of it.
He ended with a stark comparison. If Britain, with its long-established democratic system, could not stop Brexit, he wrote, then Poland, more polarized and more vulnerable to emotional politics, may find it even harder to resist a slide toward a "Polexit."
For now, 82 percent of Poles are happy with their country being an EU member, according to a recent survey, with respondents citing freedom of travel and work across the bloc as the main benefits of European integration.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP, Rzeczpospolita
Click on the audio player above for a report by Michał Owczarek.