Ukraine a Major Topic in Polish Presidential Debate
During Friday's debate, opposition-backed Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a bad attitude towards Poland, while pro-government candidate Rafał Trzaskowski accused his rival of speaking the language of Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to PAP.
During Friday's televised debate, the two candidates asked each other three questions in six thematic blocks on health, international politics, economy, social policy, security and worldview.
The issues of migration and Ukraine came up repeatedly in the discussion. Both candidates distanced themselves from the migration pact, with Nawrocki reiterating that if he became president, he would unilaterally terminate the pact, while Trzaskowski argued that the pact would ‘never come into force’ because of the assistance Poland had provided to Ukraine.
‘I was the one who wrote in the EU documents that if we help Ukrainians, we will not accept anyone else,’ Trzaskowski said.
Navrotsky Trzaskowski him of lying and asked him to point to a specific document. Trzaskowski replied that he was referring to a resolution from 2015. ‘I don't think there was a war in Ukraine in 2015,’ Navrotsky said, to which Trzaskowski replied that the occupation of Crimea was already a war.
During the security block, Trzaskowski asked Nawrocki, among other things, whether he opposed Ukraine's accession to NATO, noting that he preaches the same message as Vladimir Putin on this issue.
"I speak the language of Poles; (...) If President (of Ukraine Volodymyr - ed.) Zelenskyy treats us badly, we have the right to say so. And millions of Poles in Poland today would like to say this, but they cannot, because the slogan ‘you are speaking Putin's propaganda’ immediately appears," Nawrocki argued.
According to his assessment, ‘as a person persecuted by the Russian Federation,’ he can be ‘the voice of those who do not agree that Ukraine is flooding us with grain and creating unequal conditions for competition.’
When asked about his relationship with US President Donald Trump, Tzaskowski said he has never said a ‘bad word’ about him and has ‘sensational relations with Republicans’. "Trump is not the type of person who likes people who come to kiss him in the ring. He values those who are tough and have influence," he said. Nawrocki acknowledged that "in fact, Trump likes strong and influential men who speak with the voice of their people and for their cause."
According to the results of the first round of elections in Poland on 18 May, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski from the ruling party with 31.36% and Karol Nawrocki, director of the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland, supported by the opposition PiS party, with 29.54%, went through to the second round.
Less than two weeks before the second round of the Polish presidential election, both candidates have equal support.
As The Gaze reported earlier, opposition-backed Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki has officially promised not to allow Ukraine to join NATO if he wins.