Karol Nawrocki is an interesting character. The relatively new conservative president of Poland, having finally taken the oath of office after a tumultuous baptism of opposition fire and electoral shenanigans brimstone in early August. He is no friend of the European Union, and has been vocal from the beginning about his intentions to protect Poland's sovereignty as a country from the EU's ever-expanding ambitions for control. This puts him and the country's prime minister, the Europhile Donald Tusk, at opposite ends of the political spectrum in what is now a split coalition government.
...The way the Polish government is set up, the office of the president is nowhere near as powerful as that of the prime minister. But a president does have the ability to exercise important safeguards for controlling what the PM and parliament do.
...A president in Poland does not have executive powers but he can block legislation via the use of a veto that can only be overturned by a super majority of 3/5 in parliament, which the present government does not have.
The head of state also has the power to make judicial appointments, is the head of the armed forces, must approve the hiring and firing of the nation’s ambassadors and also has the sole and absolute power of clemency.
Tusk's coalition does not have and has not had the majority to override a presidential veto, and he has been using extra-legal measures to do so with the vetoes issued by the previous Polish president.
This antipathy towards Nawrocki's populism was the genesis of much of Tusk's political machinations in the effort to deny Nawrocki the presidency entirely. There's no love lost.
On the right, Donald Tusk is listening to the inaugurational speech of President Karol Nawrocki. pic.twitter.com/2BCU8Ksfff
— Filip Styczyński (@FilipStyczynski) August 6, 2025
Through this past fall, the two men have managed to exist in relative ideological harmony on most issues facing Poland, especially as Nawrocki was getting his feet under him.
In November, Tusk and Nawrocki bluntly told the EU that Poland would have nothing to do with the new 'Immigration Pact' the Union was formulating.
Poland has requested a full exemption from having to take in migrants under an EU plan that allows countries to share the burden of population flows.
“We have been saying for months that there is no agreement on any relocation mechanisms,” Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński said Wednesday in announcing the decision to request the exemption.
“Poland bears enormous costs of protecting the borders of the European Union, is under migratory pressure from Belarus, and has accepted war refugees from Ukraine.”
...It said that Poland — as well as Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia and Estonia — face significant migratory pressure and could request exemptions from the Solidarity Pool, which requires that member states accept a quota of asylum seekers, pay for each person they decline to take in, or offer another form of assistance.
“As I said, Poland will not take in migrants under the Migration Pact. Nor will we pay for it. The decision has been made. We don’t talk, we act,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X Tuesday evening.
Nawrocki has maintained the connection with the Polish working class, which brought him into the presidency, unlike the urbane Tusk.
Prezydent Karol Nawrocki w orszaku Trzech Króli 😍 pic.twitter.com/f7u9bQUXKL
— F-35 🛬 🇵🇱 (@znowu_samolotem) January 6, 2026
President Karol Nawrocki in the Three Kings procession
Just four days ago, Nawrocki held true to the promises he'd made to those working-class and rural Polish voters, and the schism between him and Tusk blew into full view.
The Polish president vetoed the bill sent to him from Tusk's parliament that would have given Poland's approval and consent to the EU's intrusive, dystopian, and draconian Digital Services Act, with the words:
THE STATE IS SUPPOSED TO GUARANTEE FREEDOM, NOT RESTRICT IT
“The state is supposed to GUARANTEE freedom, not restrict it.”
— Annelies de Zeeuw (@AnneliesdeZeeuw) January 14, 2026
That’s it, this says everything we need to know.
Well done Poland! https://t.co/rSpbbQDC9f
And the Nawrocki truth bombs kept hitting about the Orwellian ambitions of the EU.
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki vetoes the implementation of the EU's Digital Services Act which aims to censor Europeans online:
— Daily Romania (@daily_romania) January 12, 2026
"A situation in which a government official decides what is permitted on the Internet is reminiscent of the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984." pic.twitter.com/jWFdnORK1T
Naturally, smelling salts came out, agonized cries of, 'BUT THE CHILDREN!!!', and fluttering Brahmin hankies went to heaving bosoms.
The threats of retribution flew fast and furious as well, from both Tusk and the Brussels Brahmins.
SIGN OR PAY
The benevolent imperialists in Brussels chose to delicately phrase the dispute as Nawrocki denying his fellow Poles the benefits of the DSA.
...If the EU imposes new fines over the rollout of digital rules, it would "reignite debates reminiscent of the rule-of-law mechanism and frozen funds disputes,” said Jakub Szymik, founder of Warsaw-based non-profit watchdog group CEE Digital Democracy Watch.
Failure to implement the tech law could in the long run even lead to fines and penalties accruing over time, as happened when Warsaw refused to reform its courts during the earlier rule of law crisis.
The European Commission said in a statement that it "will not comment on national legislative procedures." It added that "implementing the [Digital Services Act] into national law is essential to allow users in Poland to benefit from the same DSA rights."
The president and his supporters see it as a cut-and-dried case of additional national sovereignty being usurped by the authoritarian collective.
The sentiments expressed by the Poles are also what the EU is most afraid of and has to quickly get under control before the spirit of resistance gets away from them.
...Now Poland is saying what millions of Europeans think but their governments are afraid to admit:
These laws are not about security.
They are about control.
The EU wants to decide:
• What you can say
• What you can share
• What you are allowed to believe
Poland has simply said no.
This is what resistance looks like.
It's quite a set-back and the battle over forcing Poland to pay for saying no is going to be even more fun.
Who willingly pays for their own serfdom?
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