Kaczynski wants to take Poland out of EU, opposition leader warns

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, is leading Poland out of the EU, Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland’s biggest opposition party and a former prime minister, has claimed.

Tusk's claim comes in reaction to a recent magazine interview with Kaczynski in which he said Poland would have to consider "rearranging relations with the EU."

Poland is in a protracted rule-of-law dispute with the EU over judicial reforms, with Brussels focusing on a disciplinary chamber for judges established by the government, which it says could put political pressure on courts.

The European Commission (EC) has blocked Poland's access to a post-pandemic recovery fund until it complies with EU Court of Justice (CJEU) rulings which include ordering Poland to close down the chamber.

In response to the CJEU verdict, a new law penned by Andrzej Duda, Poland's president, replaces the disciplinary chamber with a "professional responsibility chamber." However, EC head Ursula von der Leyen said recently that this may prove insufficient to unblock the post-pandemic funding.

In an interview published over the weekend, Kaczynski said Poland has "shown a maximum of good will and readiness to compromise" in the rule-of-law conflict, but the EU's reluctance to unblock the post-pandemic aid despite Poland's concessions has forced his party to consider altering its relationship with the EU.

"We have shown a maximum of good will, we agreed to compromise solutions, but evidently this is not what it's all about. If we win, we will have to rearrange our relations with the EU," Kaczynski said, adding that "concessions have brought us nothing."

Commenting on Kaczynski's words on Twitter, Tusk, who leads the Civic Platform party, wrote that the PiS leader was determined to take Poland out of the EU.

"PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is in the course of extracting us from the EU with the consistency and stubbornness of a maniac. PiS's words about cannons against Brussels sound grotesque, but believe me, this is no laughing matter," Tusk wrote.

He also appealed to Polish EU supporters to "finally realise" what PiS's true intentions were.

Reacting to Tusk's claims, PiS spokesperson Radoslaw Fogiel said on Tuesday that "fantasies" about Poland's exit from the EU were completely unfounded, and stressed that the party had no intention of taking Poland out of the EU.