Tomasz Waszczuk/PAP
Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland’s opposition, has accused Jarosław Kaczyński, the ruling party leader, of “financing the development of the German economy” through actions that have led to the EU locking access to billions of euros for Poland.
Poland is due to receive EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in loans from the EU’s pandemic relief fund under its National Recovery Plan (KPO).
But Brussels has said that before these funds can be unlocked Poland must meet a series of rule-of-law “milestones,” including full compliance with an EU court ruling requiring Poland to change its rules for disciplining judges.
Tusk, the leader of the main opposition group, the centrist Civic Coalition, on Thursday blamed the government and the ruling party leader for the lack of European money at a meeting with residents of Elbląg, northern Poland, saying that the government’s actions “blocked unimaginable amounts of money.”
He said the government takes Poles’s money, including from taxes, and, like every other EU member state, pays it to the common EU budget.
“European funds are also our money,” Tusk said. “Do you know who is spending this money right now? Germans, Belgians, French and Italians spend our money.”
But, he added, ” Kaczyński is blocking it and we’re not getting a penny from it (the common EU budget – PAP).”
“Kaczyński has financed the development of the German economy,” Tusk further argued.
At the same time, he added, “we will continue to pay off the European Union’s debt for years, because we are part of it, unless Kaczyński takes us out of the European Union.”
