President Karol Nawrocki submitted a motion to the Senate to hold a nationwide referendum concerning the EU’s climate policy and rising energy prices.
In a recording posted yesterday on X, Nawrocki recalled that in February 2025, while still a presidential candidate, he signed an agreement with Solidarity. In it, he declared that he would take action to curb the negative effects of the European Green Deal, including, in particular, submitting a motion to the Senate to hold a referendum on the implementation of EU climate policy.
The referendum question, proposed by Karol Nawrocki, is to be: “Are you in favour of implementing the EU climate policy, which has led to an increase in the cost of living for citizens, energy prices and running a business and agricultural activity?”
Nawrocki, an independent who was backed for president by the conservative PiS, has been demonized by the left-liberal coalition that rules under Prime Minister Donald Tusk but has rallied to support right-wing causes, such as destructive green policies, opposing the Mercosur trade deal, and other initiatives conservatives feel make Poland too reliant on the EU.
Adrian Zandberg, co-chair of the Razem Party, criticized the president’s proposal during a press conference in Toruń, stating, according to Do Rzeczy, that referendum questions have a “very ugly and bad tradition” in Poland.
According to Zandberg, the question posed by Nawrocki is insulting to the Polish intellect and does not serve to build the state’s authority. He went so far as to say that it may discourage citizens from engaging in public life.
According to the latest polling, Razem fell from 4.9 percent to 3 percent support, meaning it would fail to enter the Sejm in Poland’s parliamentary elections next year.
Prof. Antoni Dudek, political scientist and historian, also commented on the head of state’s initiative on Thursday on TVN24.
“This is proof to me that the president is launching a spring offensive. He started it on May 3rd with his famous speech, appointing the Council for the New Constitution, and now we have the next step,” said the lecturer at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University.
He added that he believes “there will be no referendum” because the motion will not find support in the Senate. “This will allow the president, along with PiS’s candidate for prime minister, Mr. Czarnek, to claim that the president and prime minister in question wanted to protect Poles from the high prices caused by the Green Deal, and that Tusk’s misguided government and the coalition prevented this,” he stated.
Meanwhile, on another front, despite Nawrocki’s earlier veto, Poland has gone ahead and officially approved the SAFE loan agreement today. EU Commissioners Piotr Serafin and Andrius Kubilius, as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Minister of Finance Andrzej Domański signed off on it.
Nawrocki, as well as Law and Justice (PiS) and the Confederation, all opposed the loan, which will hand Poland €43.7 billion in low-interest loans from the EU’s SAFE program. Their purpose is to fund the purchase of military equipment from European manufacturers for the Polish Army.
On Thursday, President Nawrocki also posted an interview on X, informing viewers of the government’s attempts to bypass him in matters related to Polish security.
