Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a new interview that he does not believe that Russia will attack Poland, provided the country maintains a strong military.
“The strong do not get attacked. It is the weak that are vulnerable to attack,” he told daily tabloid Fakt in an interview.
Asked why he was not present in Kyiv on the second anniversary of the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, he said that he had never been invited, quashing speculation that an invitation had been made and then withdrawn. He added that he was always ready to travel to Kyiv when necessary.
Duda also signaled his support for Polish farmers in their protests against Ukrainian imports. He said he believes that the issue should be resolved at the EU level.
The Polish president has discussed the issue with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and told him, “You were in Brussels for many years, including your spell as president of the European Council and have always claimed to be a seasoned European politician. Please prove in your negotiations with Brussels that this is the case and that you have clout in the ruling European People’s Party, which you recently led.”
As for his and Tusk’s visit to the White House scheduled for March 12, he denied there were any plans for him to meet Donald Trump. However, he was full of praise for the cooperation he enjoyed with Trump while Trump was president.
“Thanks to his goodwill towards Poland, our country was able to secure F-35 fighter planes for our military,” as well as increase the U.S. military presence in Poland, he stated.
Asked about Trump’s view that he would not defend countries that refused to pay their way and spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense, Duda said that Trump was always more of a businessman than a politician and saw things in transactional terms.
Finally, Duda refused to elaborate on what the future might hold for him after he departed the Presidential Palace after completing his second and final term in office in 2025.
“I know how to work and have two hands. If necessary, I can do physical work, no problem,” he quipped.
In a separate development, an opinion poll on the presidential elections due next spring has shown Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who is expected to be the candidate for Donald Tusk’s KO, in the lead with 26 percent of the vote, just one point ahead of former conservative (PiS) Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who is at 25 percent. The speaker of parliament and one of the leaders of the “Third Way” alliance, Szyomn Hołownia, is in third with 16 percent, and fourth is the Confederation party’s Krzysztof Bosak with 10 percent.
