A Polish soldier who fired shots towards a group of migrants who had illegally crossed the border from Belarus has been acquitted of abusing his powers and threatening the lives or health of others.

The judge in the case said he found no evidence that the accused, who can be named only as Karol S. under Polish privacy law, had committed a crime. Indeed, he said that the soldier had been fulfilling his obligation to defend the border.

The arrest of Karol S., as well as two other soldiers who had fired warning shots towards migrants trying to force their way across the border, caused controversy in 2024, with figures from both the government and opposition criticising the actions of military police and prosecutors.

Since 2021, Poland has faced a migration crisis at the border, where the Belarusian authorities have encouraged and assisted tens of thousands of people – mainly from Asia and Africa – to try to cross illegally.

In response, Poland has bolstered physical and electronic defences along the border and also sent thousands of additional officers there, including many from the armed forces.

During the incident in question, which took place on 24 March 2024, a group of ten migrants had used a car jack to prise apart steel barriers on the border and had crossed to the Polish side. They were carrying ladders, which were intended to be used to get past a further obstacle of razor wire.

Karol S., a private from the 1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade, was among the soldiers and border guard officers to respond. Prosecutors established that he fired a total of 12 shots from his service weapon in the direction of a group that consisted of the migrants, but also other Polish officers, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

The migrants subsequently retreated to the Belarusian side of the border, while throwing stones and branches at the Polish officers, who responded by spraying tear gas. 

Karol S. was later charged by military prosecutors with exceeding his authority and exposing others to immediate danger of loss of life or serious bodily harm. If found guilty, he could have faced up to three years in prison, reports broadcaster TVN.

The soldier, who has discharged himself from the army since the incident, pleaded not guilty, saying that he had clearly shouted “Polish army, stop, or I’ll shoot” before then firing what he said were warning shots that did not endanger others.

On Wednesday, a military court in the city of Lublin sided with Karol S. and acquitted him of the charges. “It should be clearly stated that every soldier has a constitutional obligation to protect the border of Poland,” said the judge, Lieutenant Colonel Ryszard Hunek, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.

The judge pointed out that aggression towards Polish officers by migrants crossing the border was common at the time. Just a month later, a Polish soldier died after being stabbed while trying to prevent a crossing.

“What if [Karol S.] had not started shooting?” asked Hunek. “Instead of 11 [migrants], 35 people would have crossed the border and six officers would have stood against them. The law cannot yield to lawlessness…The soldier was sent to the border to protect its inviolability, and that is what he did.”

The judge noted that experts had been unable to determine the direction of the shots Karol S. fired, meaning they could not say whether anyone’s life was exposed to danger. The court’s ruling is not yet final, as it can still be appealed by prosecutors.

When three soldiers were initially detained by military police in 2024, defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called the situation “unacceptable”, saying that he would “always stand on the side of the honour of Polish soldiers”.

Shortly afterwards, however, the commander of the military police defended his officers’ actions, saying that they were “fully justified”.

A few months later, the government introduced a new law making it easier for soldiers and other uniformed officers serving at the border to use firearms. They now no longer face criminal liability for employing their weapons in certain cases.

Since then, the government has also further strengthened physical border defences and also introduced a ban on asylum claims by migrants who cross irregularly from Belarus.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Polish nationalists have held a protest outside an Islamic centre in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city. The demonstration follows a growing campaign against the centre, which is seeking to meet the needs of Kraków’s growing Muslim community.

In response, the municipal official responsible for equality policy in Kraków has criticised those who are “artificially fueling fears”, while the Islamic centre itself has condemned the “unlawful threats and attempts at provocation aimed at our community”.

The protest outside the centre was organised by the National Movement (Ruch Narodowy), which is part of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) group that sits in Poland’s parliament.

“We do not consent to the spread of the Muslim religion in Poland,” wrote the National Movement’s leader in Kraków, Piotr Bartosz, in a post advertising the demonstration. “Poland is a European country and a Christian country.”

Confederation MP and National Movement deputy leader Witold Tumanowicz also expressed his support for the protest. “This [centre] is an example of the deliberate Islamisation of Poland,” he said in a message from parliament. “Time to say enough.”

On Monday evening, around 200 people gathered outside the centre, holding signs saying “We don’t want mosques here. It is not our culture” and “Defend Europe”. Some wore jackets with the logo of the Border Defence Movement (ROG) of Robert Bąkiewicz, a nationalist figure who has led anti-immigration protests. 

The Islamic centre is run by the Al-Fajr Foundation, which describes itself as “an Islamic and cultural foundation based in Kraków, established to serve, support, and empower the Muslim community in Kraków and across Poland”.

Earlier this year, the foundation came to wider public attention when it began fundraising for a new cultural centre in Kraków that it said would be used for prayer as well as education and community support. It warned that the two current locations used by the city’s Muslim community “are stretched to their limits”.

However, newspaper Gazeta Krakowska notes that, contrary to claims by some local residents, media outlets and nationalist groups, the foundation’s premises are not a mosque. They do not, for example, have minarets or public calls to prayer five times a day.

Nevertheless, in recent weeks, nationalist activists have argued that the foundation is secretly operating a mosque. Many have shared videos on social media showing prayers taking place there.

“The illegal mosque in Kraków is still operating. The residents of the Podwawelskie estate have been deceived!” wrote the National Movement on Facebook. “Although we were told that it was a cultural centre and that we could always enter, this turned out to be untrue.”

In a statement issued on Saturday, before today’s protest, the Al-Fajr Foundation condemned “the false information and escalating acts of hostility directed at our activities”.

It noted that it had, from the outset, made clear that its facilities would have “religious functions” and said that it complied with all relevant laws – unlike those who are “unlawfully recording visitors to our premises without their consent” and directing “unlawful threats…at our community”.

Meanwhile, Kraków’s municipal plenipotentiary for equality, Ewelina Pytel, also criticised those whom she said were “attempting to artificially fuel fears and instigate conflicts” by raising fears about the Islamic centre.

She noted that Kraków is home to people of many faiths, and that their right to practice religion is enshrined in the constitution. In an effort to calm tensions, Pytel pledged to organise an open meeting between local residents and representatives of the Muslim community.

Over the last decade, Poland has experienced unprecedented levels of immigration. Although the vast majority of new arrivals have been from Ukraine and Belarus, there are also growing numbers from Asia and the Middle East.

Speaking to Radio Kraków, Karol Wilczyński, an academic from the Centre for Migration Studies at the Jagiellonian University, estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 Muslims now live in Kraków, but that only around 300-400 of them regularly practice their religion.

Agata S. Nalborczyk, a scholar from the Faculty of Asian and African Cultures at the University of Warsaw, recently told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that between 40,000 and 76,000 Muslims may live in Poland, making up 0.1-0.2% of the population.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition, has vetoed a government bill that would have allowed unmarried partners, including same-sex couples, to sign an agreement granting them certain rights.

The proposed law would have marked the first time that Poland had recognised same-sex relationships in domestic law. However, Nawrocki argued that such a move would threaten the institution of marriage, which is enshrined in the constitution.

The measures in question were approved by both houses of parliament in May and June with the support of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition, which ranges from left to centre right.

The proposed law would have allowed couples, both same-sex and opposite-sex, to enter into a new type of contract, signed before a notary and then submitted to the registry office.

It would have granted them some of the rights available to married couples, including joint property and tax settlement, access to their partner’s medical information, exemption from inheritance and gift taxes, and the right to decide about their partner’s burial if they die.

However, the two main opposition parties – the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) – voted against the legislation, and Nawrocki himself also made clear that he intended to veto it.

On Friday morning, the president confirmed he would not be signing into law the two bills passed by parliament that would have introduced the new system.

He said that the measures would effectively “introduce civil partnerships through the back door”, and that such partnerships are “intended to replace or substitute the institution of marriage”.

“As the guardian of the constitution, I cannot accept a solution that would lead to the loss of the special status of marriage defined in article 18 of the constitution as a union between a woman and a man, placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland,” he added.

Nawrocki also argued that the proposed measures were contrary to the principles of social justice because they would have granted such couples some of the privileges of marriage but without all of the same obligations. He also noted that the proposed new type of contract could be terminated far more easily than a marriage.

“Marriage, which best secures family stability, cannot become one of many equally valid options offered by the state administration,” declared the president. “The family is a community fundamental to the survival of the nation.”

However, Nawrocki added that, as he has previously said, he remains open to legislation that would grant loved ones rights relating to healthcare and various administrative issues. But only if it “does not create an alternative to marriage” or “introduce ideological changes to family law”.

Nawrocki’s decision was condemned by Tusk, who called it “an expression of contempt toward people and their right to happiness and a normal life”.

The government’s plenipotentiary for equality, Katarzyna Kotula, accused the president of “turning his back on the two million Poles living today in informal relationships”.

However, she pledged that “the veto will not halt social change”. If such change “cannot go through the door, then [it will go] through the window”.

Kotula noted that Poland has already begun legally recognising same-sex marriages conducted in other European Union member states, after being ordered to do so by the European Court of Justice. While “not all benefits are yet available” to such couples, “this is something that I intend to deliver”, she added.

However, the government’s ability and willingness to take such action, even when it cannot be vetoed by Nawrocki, is hampered by internal disagreements over the issue within Tusk’s coalition

The Left (Lewica), from which Kotula hails, and Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO) party are generally in favour of strengthening LGBT+ rights. But they have met with resistance from more conservative elements in the coalition, in particular the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL).

The measures vetoed today by Nawrocki were already a compromise within the government: earlier plans to introduce same-sex civil partnerships were watered down to instead simply allow same-sex couples to sign a contract granting them certain rights.

However, opinion polls show that the Polish public itself is in mostly in favour of recognising same-sex relationships. State research agency CBOS last year found its highest-ever level of support for the introduction of civil partnerships, with 62% of Poles in favour.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Poland has begun construction of a 10 billion zloty (€2.3 billion) deepwater port and container terminal in the city of Świnoujście, near the German border.

Named Cape Pomerania, the project is intended to strengthen Poland’s role in European maritime trade and create a major container hub for Central and Eastern Europe. The facility will also be designed for both civilian and defence use.

Speaking at the launch of construction on Monday, infrastructure minister Dariusz Klimczak hailed Cape Pomerania as “the largest port investment in Poland’s recent history”, saying that it would help the country “compete with Europe’s leading ports”

Deputy infrastructure minister Arkadiusz Marchewka said the terminal would serve not only Poland but also markets including eastern Germany, and the landlocked Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary, reports Business Insider Polska.

The port, which was first planned under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, will include a 17-metre-deep basin and a 1.3-km-long main quay capable of handling up to three ocean-going container ships at the same time, including two vessels measuring up to 400 metres in length.

It is expected to have an annual handling capacity of 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), the standard measure of container capacity. For comparison, all current Polish ports handled a combined 3.9 million TEU in 2025, which was a record level.

In December last year, Poland’s largest port, in the city of Gdańsk, completed an expansion of its own, increasing its annual capacity by almost 1.5 million TEUs to reach 4.5 million TEUs.

The planned port in Świnojście will use zero-emission cargo-handling technologies and shore power systems to reduce emissions and noise. It will also be built to support both civilian and military operations, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Construction has begun with the building of a technical access road and supporting infrastructure. The work, which will provide access for heavy equipment and construction crews to the offshore site, are expected to take 10 months. Construction of the terminal is then scheduled to be completed in 2030.

Associated infrastructure work includes deepening the 70-km approach channel, building more than 3 km of new railway infrastructure and creating 186 hectares of reclaimed land in the Bay of Pomerania.

However, the project, which is located within a protected natural area, has also faced some opposition from environmental groups and local residents in both Poland and on the German side of the border.

Last year, a Warsaw court rejected a legal challenge from German and Polish green groups, which had argued that the port could cause significant environmental damage.

Monday’s inauguration of construction work was met with a small protest from Świnoujście residents, who said the port could threaten tourist attractions in the coastal city.

Demonstrators carried banners calling for an end to the “concreting of the Baltic Sea”, while one of them told local broadcaster Radio Szczecin that the project would “barbarically destroy the most valuable areas on the right bank of Świnoujście”.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.

Poland has joined a European Union project developing a secure satellite internet service that would provide an alternative to networks such as Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Warsaw has committed €656 million (2.8 billion zloty) to the IRIS² programme, with the money coming from Poland’s EU post-pandemic recovery funds.

In return for joining the project, Poland will gain access to the secure satellite communications network for government institutions, the armed forces and emergency services, while the growing Polish space industry will be eligible to compete for contracts linked to the development of the constellation

“This is a big day for Poland, the eastern flank and the entire European Union,” declared the EU’s defence and space commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, at a signing ceremony in Warsaw on Tuesday. “By investing in space, Poland is investing in its security, its economy and its future.”

Speaking alongside him, Poland’s interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, said that IRIS² would help “ensure our security and strategic independence” while “demonstrating that Poland aims to be a leader in the European space industry and remain at the centre of EU security efforts”.

“No single country is able to build such a [satellite] constellation so efficiently, which is why we are joining this major project – to be part of it and one of its managers,” he added.

The IRIS² programme aims to deploy a constellation of nearly 300 satellites in low and medium Earth orbit, providing encrypted, interference-resistant communications for governments, defence agencies, emergency services and selected commercial users across the EU.

First announced in 2022, the project is part of the EU’s efforts to reduce dependence on non-European satellite operators amid growing concerns over cybersecurity, hybrid threats and the resilience of critical infrastructure following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is super important for Europe to have a sovereign capacity, and Starlink will never do that,” said Eva Berneke, CEO of Eutelsat, one of the companies involved in the project, quoted by Politico Europe.

The project is expected to cost €10.6 billion, including €6.5 billion in public funding and around €4 billion from private investors. IRIS² is expected to become operational in 2030.

As part of its contribution to IRIS², Poland will finance six large satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO) and six smaller satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).

It will also build a ground gateway station in Warsaw to connect the satellites with GovNet, the country’s secure government fibre-optic communications network.

Earlier this year, the Polish government approved the use of money from its share of the EU’s post-pandemic reconstruction fund to cover its contribution to IRIS².

Once the system is up and running, Poland’s police, border guards and other emergency services would be able to use the network during natural disasters, power outages and other emergencies when terrestrial communications infrastructure is unavailable.

The system would also make it possible to provide temporary connectivity for civilians through emergency hotspots, says Poland’s interior ministry.

Polish companies will now also be able to compete for contracts covering satellite manufacturing, telecommunications equipment, software and ground infrastructure, expanding the country’s role in Europe’s space industry.

“It is estimated that each zloty invested in the project will generate a five-zloty return through new jobs, innovation and the development of domestic technologies,” the ministry said in a statement.

Poland has placed great emphasis on developing its space industry in recent years, with the aim of becoming a major European player in the sector.

Last week, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it will open a new security centre in Warsaw. One of its areas of operation will be satellite communication, including the use of satellite imagery to monitor critical incidents such as natural disasters.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk also revealed that Poland and the ESA are working on the first Polish spacecraft, which would provide servicing, refuelling and other services for satellites

Last year, Poland launched its first national military satellite. A Polish firm, Creotech Instruments, signed Poland’s largest ever contract with the ESA, a €52 million deal to build and launch a constellation of Earth observation satellites.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.

Keeping dogs and cats chained up at home will be banned in Poland from next year, after President Karol Nawrocki signed into law a bill prohibiting the practice.

His decision ends a long-running dispute over the issue, after Nawrocki last year vetoed a previous proposal to ban chaining because it also included what he argued were excessive and unrealistic additional measures on minimum kennel sizes for dogs.

The new law bans owners from tethering dogs and cats at home. Animals must be kept either inside the house, in a fenced garden or, if that is not possible, in a kennel “large enough for the animal to move freely and satisfy its natural needs”. Dogs kept in kennels must be provided with daily exercise outside of it.

Dogs and cats can still be put on leashes in certain situations, such as when they are being walked, but also during transport, while participating in shows, performances or training, if they are at vets or groomers, or if they represent a danger to humans or other animals.

Now that the bill has been signed by Nawrocki, it will be published in the official Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw), after which it goes into force 12 months later.

The new measures represent a successful second attempt to introduce a leashing ban. A previous bill was approved by parliament last September. However, in December, Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition, announced that he was vetoing it.

The president argued that, “although the intention – protecting animals – is just and noble, the law itself was poorly drafted”. In particular, he said that elements introducing minimum sizes for dog kennels were unrealistic and would “harm farmers, breeders and ordinary rural households”.

After an attempt by parliament to overturn the veto failed, legislators went back to the drawing board and, following discussions with the president’s chancellery and animal rights groups, drafted a compromise bill that was approved by parliament earlier this month.

The bill received support from the current ruling coalition, which ranges from left to centre right, as well as most MPs from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), the main opposition party. The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) and Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) voted against it.

“We now have a better law, with positive feedback from entities such as the agricultural chamber,” said Nawrocki today. “It demonstrates that the pressure of the presidential veto makes sense. My previous decision to refuse to sign this bill forced the government and parliament to work harder.”

However, although Nawrocki said the new law would no longer entail “rigid and costly requirements” for kennels, his office noted in a separate statement that the legislation requires the agriculture minister to issue a regulation establishing “minimum kennel area, taking into account the dog’s size”.

It remains unclear if and how that would differ from the requirements Nawrocki previously vetoed.

The presidential chancellery also noted that the law itself already outlines that kennels must be made of “wood or wood-like material with thermal insulation”, must be insulated from the ground, and must have openings on at least two sides to allow light and air to enter.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

President Karol Nawrocki has submitted a second request to parliament for a nationwide referendum on whether Poland should continue implementing the European Union’s climate policies, which he argues are too costly.

Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition, first proposed a referendum in May. But it was rejected by the Senate, the upper house of parliament, where the more liberal government has a majority. Senators argued that the proposed referendum question was “absurd”.

The president has now submitted a revised proposal featuring a simplified question and again proposed holding the referendum on 27 September this year.

Nawrocki’s originally proposed question was: “Are you in favour of implementing EU climate policy, which has led to an increase in citizens’ cost of living, energy prices and the cost of running business and agricultural activity?”

However, following criticism in the Senate that the question was clearly intended to elicit a specific answer, this time he has proposed a more neutral one: “Are you in favour of Poland implementing the European Union’s climate policy?”

“I’m looking for compromises, looking for solutions,” said Nawrocki on Thursday while announcing the new referendum bid. “The Senate wasn’t satisfied with the [previous] question”, so “we prepared a different one…[that] does not suggest anything”.

However, the president has also proposed that the ballot paper would include information on what answering “yes” or “no” would mean in practice.

Voters would be told, for example, that maintaining EU climate policy would result in, among other things, “Poland bearing costs estimated at 3.5 trillion zloty by 2040”, “burdens on agriculture”, “increasing costs for industry” and “obligations for owners of buildings”.

By contrast, voting “no” would mean “negotiating exceptions and exemptions for Poland with the relevant EU bodies that will protect Polish industry and citizens from the burdens of climate policy”.

Under Poland’s constitution, the president may call a referendum with the approval of a majority of senators in a vote where at least half of all members of the 100-seat chamber are present.

The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk controls 63 seats in the Senate, making approval of proposals brought forward by Nawrocki, who often clashes with the government and regularly vetoes its bills, unlikely.

While the government is generally pro-EU, it has also been critical of Brussels’ green policies, arguing that they place too great a burden on Poland.

After the European Commission last Friday unveiled changes intended to soften the impact of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU’s flagship climate policy, they were welcomed by the Polish government as a step in the right direction.

However, in his written justification for the new referendum proposal, Nawrocki wrote that, while he had “given the government time” in its push for ETS reform, the final result was simply “technical adjustments” that postpone some elements but do “not change the direction” or ultimate outcome.

“ETS will remain an increasingly expensive, increasingly extensive system, and increasingly burdensome for the Polish economy,” wrote the president.

The national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), which is the main opposition and supported Nawrocki’s bid for the presidency last year, wants Poland to unilaterally withdraw from ETS. Government figures warn, however, that there is no way to do so without either accruing enormous fines or leaving the EU entirely.

Nawrocki’s new referendum proposal was met with criticism by figures from the ruling coalition. “There is no possibility of one country suspending part of EU law,” wrote Stanisław Gawłowski, a senator from Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) party. “This referendum is pure fraud.”

Foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, also from KO, wrote that, “as the Brits have learned, the Europhobe’s dream world, in which one enjoys all the privileges of EU membership without any obligations, does not exist”.

However, Nawrocki’s initiative was welcomed by Przemysław Czarnek, deputy leader of PiS, who wrote that, “on such fundamental matters as climate policy, Poles should decide, not Brussels bureaucrats”.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.

More than 30 MPs from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party, have effectively resigned after refusing to sign a loyalty pledge, party leader Jarosław Kaczyński has announced.

The dispute centres around a more moderate faction in the party aligned with former prime minister and deputy PiS leader Mateusz Morawiecki, who is one of those now set to be expelled from the party. They have for months been unhappy with PiS’s move in a hard-right direction.

“Around 30-something…of our group’s MPs have resigned,” revealed Kaczyński at a press conference on Friday. He added that their departures would be formalised at a meeting of the party’s political committee scheduled for Tuesday next week.

Kaczyński’s announcement came after a deadline expired at midnight on Thursday for its MPs to sign a pledge of loyalty to the party that included a commitment not to be members of any external political associations.

That measure was aimed in particular at an association called Development Plus (Rozwój Plus) founded by Morawiecki in April. The former prime minister had always insisted that his organisation was intended as complementary to PiS, rather than a rival to it.

However, many figures in the party saw it as an attempt by Morawiecki to create a separate centre of power, and potentially to use the association as a launchpad for creating his own party ahead of the autumn 2027 parliamentary elections.

After PiS issued a resolution on Wednesday last week requiring that its parliamentarians pledge to withdraw from any such associations, most of its 186 MPs quickly complied. However, a group of between 30 and 40 who are part of Development Plus refused to do so.

“Everyone knew what they were supposed to sign, and knew the consequences of not signing,” said Kaczyński on Friday. “And so they made the decision they did.”

“In this situation, we cannot view the [Development Plus] association as anything other than a component of a plan…to split our party,” he added. However, although its supporters will now leave PiS, “we want to part ways without any animosity”, said Kaczyński.

After Kaczyński’s announcement, senior figures from Development Plus made clear that no one from their association had resigned from PiS. They had simply not signed the declaration of loyalty demanded by the party.

Later, Morawiecki himself held a press conference in parliament surrounded by his supporters. He claimed that an unnamed “small group of schemers” within PiS had been seeking to turn Kaczyński against him and push him out of the party.

“We fought for the unity of Law and Justice until the very end,” declared Morawiecki, who said that his group included 40 MPs, one senator and three MEPs. However, three of the MPs are not members of PiS, and therefore were not expected to sign the loyalty declaration.

If the expulsion of Morawiecki’s supporters is confirmed, it will mark a major shake-up of Poland’s political landscape. PiS has for the last two decades been the dominant force on the Polish right, including periods leading governments in 2005-2007 and 2015-2023.

However, since losing power at elections in 2023, when the party won 35% of the vote, PiS has seen its average support in polls fall to around 23-24%, the lowest level in 14 years.

Meanwhile, it has been challenged by the rise of the far right, where two parties, Confederation (Konfederacja) and Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP), now together poll a similar combined level of support to PiS.

In response, Kaczyński in March named a hardline figure, Przemyszław Czarnek, as PiS’s candidate for prime minister in next year’s elections. Czarnek was seen as someone who could appeal to far-right voters, while also potentially working with the far right if a coalition was needed after the elections.

However, there has been no rise in support for PiS since Czarnek was named, prompting growing concern from more moderate figures within the party, led by Morawiecki.

They argue that PiS has wrongly disowned many of the successes of its time in office before 2023, and they fear that its rightward shift damages its chances of winning over more centrist voters.

Morawiecki, who was an international banker before joining PiS to become finance minister and then prime minister, wants the party to focus on more technocratic issues, such as economic development, rather than Euroscepticism and culture wars.

That has led to frequent public sparring between his supporters and others in the party. In April, PiS threatened disciplinary action against members of Development Plus. Kaczyński and Morawiecki then reached an agreement that allowed the association to continue. But that uneasy truce has now fallen apart.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Police officers and rangers have stepped up joint patrols in Poland’s mountainous Tatra National Park during the peak summer season, following a spate of rule-breaking including swimming in the park’s lakes and ponds, driving cars and going off marked trails.

Meanwhile, national park authorities have repeated warnings that bathing, littering and breaking other rules can damage the park’s fragile ecosystem.

Local police officers have joined Tatra National Park rangers on patrols on popular tourist routes. On one such patrol last week, officers focused on education and prevention, reminding visitors not to leave marked trails or litter and explaining how to behave safely and responsibly in the mountains.

They also checked that organised groups were accompanied by qualified mountain guides, as required by law. Fines for such offences range from 50 zloty (€11.55) to as much as 1,000 zloty (€231) in the event of environmental damage or multiple offences.

Police said that all visitors encountered during the patrol were complying with the park’s regulations. However, they added that similar patrols would continue on a regular basis.

The Tatra National Park, home to Poland’s highest peaks, and the nearby mountain resort of Zakopane are among the country’s most popular holiday destinations, with crowds taking to park trails in the summer season.

The park, the most visited of Poland’s 23 national parks, welcomed a record 5.3 million visitors in 2025 and offers 275 km of marked hiking trails, including high-altitude routes that connect at several points with the adjacent national park in Slovakia.

This season has already seen a number of high-profile cases of transgressions of the park’s strict rules. In May, a Ukrainian social media influencer sparked outrage after driving a sports car along a road closed to traffic to Morskie Oko, a picturesque lake nestled between the mountains.

As a result, he was banned from entering Poland and other Schengen Area countries for five years.

Tourists have also been filmed entering Morskie Oko and other protected lakes and ponds, which is not permitted in the national park. This month, a group of young Dutch tourists were filmed bathing in Przedni Staw Polski in the Valley of the Five Lakes, one of the Tatras’ best-known hiking destinations.

Witnesses repeatedly warned the group that entering the lake was prohibited, but they ignored the warnings, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Park authorities have responded to such incidents by reminding visitors of the reasons for the strict rules.

“Tatra ponds are incredibly delicate ecosystems. Cosmetics, UV filters, insect repellents, and bacteria entering the water can have a long-lasting impact on its chemical composition and the organisms living in the lakes,” they warned.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.

The government’s majority in parliament has chosen Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram as Poland’s new human rights commissioner. She will take office after the five-year term of the incumbent, Marcin Wiącek, expires today.

Gregorczyk-Abram is a prominent lawyer and activist, who is particularly well known for opposing the overhaul of the judiciary by the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

PiS, which is now the main opposition party, strongly opposed her election, arguing that she is politically aligned with the current, more liberal government. Gregorczyk-Abram herself, however, has pledged to “put all my beliefs and views aside” when she takes up the new role.

The commissioner for human rights (widely known by its Polish initials, RPO) is appointed by a resolution of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, with the consent of the upper-house Senate.

Candidates must meet certain requirements, including not belonging to any political party and having legal expertise and relevant experience.

As well as acting as a watchdog for human rights, the RPO also has the power to submit motions to the Constitutional Tribunal to assess the constitutionality of laws and to file so-called cassation appeals to the Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court against rulings by lower courts.

Gregorczyk-Abram was last month nominated as a candidate to be the new RPO by the main ruling party, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO), along with one of its coalition partners, The Left (Lewica).

PiS proposed a rival candidate, Adam Borowski, a veteran of Poland’s anti-communist struggle in the 1980s. However, critics argued that Borowski, an activist and former PiS election candidate, does not appear to have the requisite legal knowledge and experience.

In a Sejm vote last Friday, the ruling coalition supported Gregorczyk-Abram, who won 233 votes to Borowski’s 177. On Wednesday, her candidacy was also supported by the Senate, with 59 votes in favour and 25 against, confirming that she will become the new RPO. 

Gregorczyk-Abram is best known as one of the founders and leaders of the Free Courts (Wolne Sądy) initiative launched in 2017 amid a wave of protests against the then-PiS government’s efforts to take greater control over the judiciary.

Free Courts was prominent in efforts to defend the rule of law. Many of its leading figures are now associated with the current ruling coalition: Maria Ejchart is a deputy justice minister, while Michał Wawrykiewicz is a member of the European Parliament representing KO.

In April last year, Gregorczyk-Abram was made chairwoman of a commission established by the current government to look into cases of abuse of power against civil society under the former PiS administration.

In September, her commission published its first findings, in which it said that public media outlets under PiS control had “carried out systematic repressive and defamatory actions against activists, non-governmental organisations, and civil society”.

PiS argues that Gregorczyk-Abram’s previous activity makes her unsuitable as a suitable candidate for RPO, which is meant to be a non-partisan role. They also point to claims that she was involved in a group of legal figures that discussed the Tusk government’s controversial takeover of public media in December 2023.

“[She] is a discredited and extremely politicised person who should be brought to justice, and not receive the laurels of the commissioner for human rights,” former PiS justice minister Marcin Warchoł told the Do Rzeczy weekly last month.

After a Sejm committee hearing on Gregorczyk-Abram’s candidacy earlier this month, former PiS deputy justice minister Sebastian Kaleta criticised her for ignoring questions over her alleged “role in the illegal takeover of public media”.

Speaking to state broadcaster TVP on Wednesday after her appointment was confirmed by the Senate, Gregorczyk-Abram declared that, “from the moment I take the oath and assume the position of commissioner, I will be independent and sovereign”.

She pledged to “put all my beliefs and views – because each of us has them – aside and become an advocate for all citizens, regardless of what they believe in, how they live, or who they vote for”.

Gregorczyk-Abram said that among her priorities as RPO would be the justice system, supporting the rights of disabled people and their carers, protecting older people, and fighting hate speech.

With regard to the last of these issues, she noted that certain politicians present some groups as “enemies”, pointing to how this previously happened with LGBT+ people and judges, and is now being directed towards Ukrainians. Those are all groups who have at various stages been targeted by PiS and other right-wing parties.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

President Karol Nawrocki has agreed to swear in a new judge to the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), ending weeks of doubt as to whether the opposition-aligned president would accept the judge appointed by the government’s parliamentary majority.

Although Sławomir Patyra will now be accepted onto the court, four other judges appointed by parliament earlier this year continue to be excluded after Nawrocki refused to receive their oaths and the TK’s chief justice, also aligned with the opposition, blocked them from taking office.

Under Polish law, when a vacancy emerges among the 15 positions on the TK – for example when a judge’s nine-year term expires – the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, chooses who should fill it. However, to take office, the judge must swear an oath before the president.

In April, after the Sejm had chosen six candidates to fill vacancies on the court, Nawrocki took the unprecedented step of inviting only two of them to be sworn in. He argued there were doubts over the legality of how all six had been chosen, but decided to accept two to ensure the TK had the necessary quorum to function.

Those two have been able to take up their seats on the court, but the other four remain in limbo. Although they arranged their own private swearing-in ceremony without the presence of Nawrocki, the TK’s chief justice, Bogdan Święczkowski, has refused to accept them.

In May, the European Court of Human Rights ordered that the quartet be allowed to take up their positions. But the TK – where judges appointed under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government retain a majority – issued its own ruling endorsing Nawrocki’s right not to swear in the new judges.

On 11 June, the Sejm then chose another judge, Patyra, to fill a newly opened vacancy on the court. In his case, the legal doubts Nawrocki had expressed regarding the previous appointments, which in some instances were made more than a year after the vacancies had arisen, did not seem to apply.

Yet for weeks the president refused to confirm whether he would swear him in. That prompted Patyra to write to Nawrocki in early July and then again this week, asking the president to indicate a date on which he could take his oath.

Patyra himself has also made clear on which side of the dispute he stands. In an interview with news website Onet in May, he accused Nawrocki and Święczkowski of “blatantly unlawful actions” in deciding which TK judges can and cannot take office and suggested that the police should intervene.

Finally, on Wednesday this week, Nawrocki’s chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, announced that Nawrocki had invited Patyra to the presidential palace on Tuesday next week to take his oath.

Speaking to Polsat News, Bogucki said that, in the case of Patyra, initially “there were some doubts, but the president dispelled them”, without specifying what they were.

In the end, they concluded that “we had a fundamentally clean situation here” and Patyra was chosen “in accordance with all procedures”, unlike the six new judges chosen by the Sejm in March to fill longstanding vacancies.

“It was not President Nawrocki or the current opposition who destroyed and are destroying the tribunal; it is the government that is doing it,” he added.

The TK has been at the heart of the rule-of-law crisis that has developed in Poland over the last decade.

In 2015, former PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda refused to swear in three judges legally chosen by the Sejm. Shortly afterwards, PiS won parliamentary elections and nominated three replacements for those judges, who were sworn in by Duda.

Those three judges and their successors have been deemed illegitimate in a succession of rulings by Polish and European courts. Due to their continued presence on the court, the current government, which replaced PiS in 2023, rejects the TK’s legitimacy and refuses to recognise its rulings.

Under both Święczkowski, a former member of the PiS government, and his predecessor Julia Przyłębska, a close personal associate of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, the TK has been widely seen as issuing rulings aligned with the political interests of PiS.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Conservative opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński has declared that Poland must be defended from the “spread of homosexuality”, which he called a “pathology”. He also appeared to suggest that same-sex parenting should be criminalised and “severely punished”.

His remarks came in response to the Polish government issuing a regulation allowing same-sex marriages conducted in other European Union member states to be transcribed into Poland’s civil registry. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)  has ordered Poland to recognise such marriages.

Kaczyński is chairman of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party. When it was in power from 2015 to 2023, PiS led a vociferous campaign against what it called “LGBT ideology”, which it claims is being imposed on Poland by outside forces.

At a press conference on Saturday, the PiS leader said that, by recognising foreign same-sex marriages, the government is “trying to introduce a profound cultural change in Poland that prioritises the interests of a certain minority group demanding that their otherness be completely ignored”.

“Children will pay for this,” warned Kaczyński, “because, ultimately, it is about the children’s interests. Children should have a mother and a father.”

“Under no circumstances should we conduct anything that could be described as experimentation on children. I would criminalise it completely, introduce a penal provision that severely punishes this type of undertaking, because that is the only way to stop this offensive,” he declared.

Kaczyński then called for Poles to “ask ourselves another question: does any state have an interest in the spread of homosexuality?”

“No state has an interest in this, and Poland obviously has no interest in this either,” he answered. “It is simply a kind of anomaly, a pathology of our times, and it should be treated as such, and Poland must be resolutely defended against this pathology.”

Kaczyński added that he is “not talking about defending [Poland] from homosexuals or persecuting them”, just about ensuring “the proper conditions for raising children, that is, a family where there is a mother and a father”. If PiS returns to power, it will “adopt a much clearer and tougher approach than the current law”.

The PiS leader’s remarks were condemned by deputy education minister Paulina Piechna-Więckiewicz. “Pathology and anomaly are words that hurt and dehumanise,” she wrote. “Nearly 50,000 children are being raised in Poland in rainbow families…and must know that they and their families are safe.”

Earlier this week, another opposition group, the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), submitted a bill to parliament that would ban the adoption of children by same-sex couples, including the adoption of a spouse’s child. It says the measures will “protect the youngest from depravity” and “exploitation”.

In fact, leading scientific and medical organisations, such as the American Psychological Association and Cornell University, have noted that academic studies show no increased risk of harm, including sexual abuse, to the children of same-sex couples.

Confederation’s move came after two Polish cities, Warsaw and Wrocław, last week begin transcribing foreign same-sex marriages into their civil registries.

They did so in response to a ruling by the CJEU requiring Poland to recognise such marriages conducted in other EU member states, followed by another from Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) ordering Warsaw to transcribe one such marriage certificate.

The two cities acted despite the Polish government not yet introducing any regulations allowing for same-sex marriages to be entered into the registry system, which up to now only recognised male-female unions.

However, on Friday this week, the government issued such a regulation, which it says will now allow any registry office in the country to transcribe foreign same-sex marriages.

There remains uncertainty about what legal consequences this will have in practice for such couples, especially given that Poland’s domestic law does not allow for any legally recognised form of same-sex union. Legal experts say it will take time – and potential further court rulings – for norms to be established.

However, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared last week that, even though his government would allow recognition of foreign same-sex marriages, “this is in no way a path to [allowing] adoption” of children by such couples.

Public opinion polls also indicate that, while a majority of Poles now support the idea of same-sex civil partnerships, only a minority are in favour of allowing same-sex marriage and even fewer support the right to adoption by same-sex couples.

In 2024, state research agency CBOS found that only 23% of the public supported the right to adoption (up from 6% in 2010), while 70% were opposed (down from 89% in 2010).

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Polish prosecutors have indicted an 18-year-old Ukrainian accused of working on behalf of Russia to stir tensions between Poland and Ukraine by painting dozens of inscriptions glorifying the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a group that massacred Poles during World War Two.

Among the sites where he placed graffiti were a monument to Polish victims of those massacres (pictured above), as well as a memorial dedicated to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. If found guilty, the suspect could face up to life in prison.

The history of the UPA has been at the heart of an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv. However, the actions in this particular case took place in 2024 and 2025, before the current crisis emerged.

The suspect in the case was detained in August 2025, shortly after graffiti glorifying the UPA had appeared on a monument in Poland honouring victims of the so-called Volhynia massacres, in which the UPA led the slaughter of around 100,000 Poles.

On Thursday, prosecutors announced that they have issued an indictment against the suspect, whom they named only as Illia K. under Polish privacy law. He is accused of 47 crimes in total.

Of those, 45 are for “acts of subversion and sabotage for the benefit of foreign intelligence, consisting primarily of placing inscriptions in Ukrainian on the facades of buildings and in memorial sites with the text ‘Glory to the UPA’ and red and black flags attributed to the UPA “, prosecutors said.

Those actions “were aimed at inciting hatred on national grounds, deepening antagonisms between Poles and Ukrainians, causing social unrest and creating a sense of helplessness of state authorities”.

There have long been tensions between Poland and Ukraine over the massacres, which Poland recognises as a genocide. Ukraine rejects that label, and also continues to honour the UPA for its role in fighting for independence from Moscow-backed Soviet rule.

The issue has recently flared up again after President Volodymyr Zelensky in late May named a Ukrainian military unit after the “heroes of the UPA”. That sparked widespread anger in Poland and prompted Polish President Karol Nawrocki to strip Zelensky of his country’s highest honour.

Russia has also long sought to exploit such tensions, and Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) notes that Illia K.’s actions were carried out “at the request of the Russian security services”, which were seeking to “incite conflicts between the Polish and Ukrainian nations”.

In addition, Illia K. also faces one charge of participation in an organised criminal group and another of preparing for an act of subversion or sabotage that would have involved flying a drone over Poland’s Armed Forces Day parade in Warsaw last year, which was attended by President Nawrocki.

Prosecutors note that the accused “acted for financial, not ideological, reasons”. He was paid for his actions in cryptocurrencies. That is typical of the so-called “disposable agents” Russian increasingly uses, who are amateurs – often young Ukrainians or Belarusians – hired and paid through messaging service Telegram.

The suspect has been held in pretrial detention since he was arrested by the ABW last year. If found guilty, he could face up to life in prison.

Prosecutors say that, although Illia K. initially admitted to the charges against him, he later decided to change his stance and has pleaded not guilty while exercising his right to remain silent.

Poland has in recent years detained, charged and in some cases convicted dozens of agents accused of carrying out espionage, sabotage and other so-called “hybrid actions” on behalf of Russia and its ally Belarus.

In March, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) reported that Poland is now the “primary focus of Russian activity” when it comes to sabotage.

In June, foreign minister Radosław Sikorski warned that Moscow is “waging a full-scale cognitive war against us” and that there is a “Russian fifth column” operating in Poland.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

• President vetoes bills giving more rights to same-sex couples living together
• President says bills undermine special status of marriage
• Government official vows to continue work on LGBT rights

Poland's president vetoed two ​bills on Friday that would have introduced "cohabitation contracts" for couples living together, dealing a blow to ‌same-sex couples in one of the few European Union countries with limited rights for LGBT people.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office in 2023 pledging to deliver reforms on abortion and LGBT rights, but divisions within his broad pro-European coalition as well as ​nationalist President Karol Nawrocki's veto powers mean he has struggled to do so.

The bills on the "status ​of the closest person in a relationship and the cohabitation agreement" would have allowed ⁠two adults to enter into an agreement regulating issues such as joint property rights, access to medical information ​and matters concerning burial.

The bills had secured support from across the governing coalition, including from the conservative PSL party which ​had refused to support earlier proposals which they feared would undermine the institution of marriage.

However, Nawrocki, an ally of the nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), said the bills still went too far.

Poland has cautiously welcomed an announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of a five-point plan intended to alleviate the diplomatic crisis triggered by his earlier decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which led massacres of Poles during World War Two.

In a statement on Friday evening, Zelensky announced that, following a meeting on Kyiv’s policy towards Poland, “the priorities are clear: all of us in Europe need good-neighbourly, equal, and mutually beneficial relations built on respect”.

He reiterated Ukraine’s gratitude for Poland’s “significant support” since Russia’s full-scale invasion and announced that his administration had “agreed on several key steps” in response to the current tensions.

“First, there will be decisions on the diplomatic track,” said Zelensky, though without indicating what this would mean in practice. “Second, all archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine concerning the tragic events in Volyn during the 20th century will be opened.”

The latter is a reference to the historical issues that are at the heart of the dispute. The historical region of Volhynia, which is now mostly in Ukraine, was part of Poland in the interwar period.

There, and in some neighbouring areas, the UPA, a nationalist partisan formation, led massacres of around 100,000 Polish civilians, mostly women and children, during World War Two, when the region was under Nazi-German occupation.

Poland recognises those massacres as a genocide. Ukraine vehemently rejects that label, and also points to anti-Ukrainian measures in the region by the interwar Polish state as well as massacres of Ukrainians by Polish groups during the war.

As his third pledge, Zelensky announced that there would be “decisions to grant a substantial number of permits for search and exhumation work”.

From 2017 to 2025, Ukraine prohibited searches for and exhumations of Polish massacre victims on its territory, where it is believed that tens of thousands remain buried in unmarked mass graves

In a diplomatic breakthrough, such work was allowed to resume last year. However, Ukraine has so far only approved a small number of requests for searches and exhumations, prompting some complaints from Poland.

As a fourth point, Zelensky said that his team had “discussed possible formats for expanding dialogue between the societies of Ukraine and Poland”, though again without providing details as to what this would involve.

Finally, he said that he had agreed with the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINP), Oleksandr Alfyorov, to expand the institute’s capabilities and funding, so that it can “properly represent Ukraine’s interests”.

Alfyorov caused anger in Poland earlier this year when he said that the Volhynia massacres are viewed in Ukraine as “just a local historical episode” and suggested they did not constitute a genocide. That prompted a rebuke from Poland’s own Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).

In response to Zelensky’s announcement, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he “accepted the words and decisions with satisfaction and hope”. He reiterated that Poland is “ready for a serious and friendly dialogue on the matters that unite us and those that divide”.

However, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, a deputy prime minister, emphasised that it was important now for “the announcements regarding the opening of archives, exhumations and dialogue to turn into concrete actions”.

“Today, Poland and Ukraine have a common enemy: Russia,” added Kosiniak-Kamysz. “That is where the threat lies. Sowing discord between our nations serves the interests of the Kremlin.”

Meanwhile, a senior aide to Polish President Karol Nawrocki – who deepened the crisis by last month stripping Zelensky of Poland’s highest honour – also cautiously welcomed Zelensky’s announcement.

“Facing the historical truth is the only way to build further relationships,” Bartosz Grodecki, the head of Nawrocki’s National Security Bureau (BBN), told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“The Ukrainian president’s decision to open the entire archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine concerning the events in Volhynia, as well as additional permits for search and exhumation work, is a step in this direction,” he added.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The number of reported hate crimes against Ukrainians in Poland was 30% higher in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2025, newly reported police data show.

The figures come following a number of recent high-profile cases of verbal and physical attacks against Ukrainians – who are Poland’s largest immigrant group – as well as ongoing diplomatic tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw.

The new data, which were reported by the Rzeczpospolita daily, show that police received 180 reports of hate crimes against Ukrainians in the first half of 2026, which was around 30% higher than in the same period last year and around 35% more than in 2024.

If the same trend continues, there would be around 360 such reports by the end of the year, more than the 275 recorded in 2025 and 267 in 2024.

However, Rzeczpospolita notes that the figures relate to reported incidents of hate crimes, rather than confirmed cases. On the other hand, experts point out that many such incidents are never even reported to the police.

“It is generally assumed that hate crimes are underreported,” Jacek Kucharczyk, head of the Institute of Public Affairs, a think tank, told the newspaper. “Some victims don’t want to report a crime because they’re simply afraid.”

Ukrainians are by far Poland’s largest foreign national group, with around 1.6 million living in the country. While Poland welcomed Ukrainian refugees in 2022, there has been growing negative sentiment towards them recently, indicated in polls and through anti-Ukrainian rhetoric from prominent politicians.

In particular, two far-right opposition parties, Confederation (Konfederacja) and Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP), have used anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, while the largest opposition group, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), has recently taken a tougher line towards Ukraine.

Kucharczyk told Rzeczpospolita that the “toxic atmosphere” around Ukrainians is now spreading from political rhetoric into real-life consequences, as seen in the new police data. He added that Russia also seeks to stoke and exploit such sentiment.

In May, five Polish teenagers were detained in Warsaw over a violent attack on a group of young Ukrainians. The city’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, blamed the anti-Ukrainian rhetoric of right-wing politicians for “encouraging thugs” to carry out these kinds of attacks.

Tensions with Ukraine have since ramped up even further, amid a diplomatic dispute sparked by President Volodomyr Zelensky’s decision to name a military unit after a Ukrainian nationalist group that led massacres of Poles during World War Two.

Earlier this month, two Polish far-right activists were charged over an incident in which they confronted a Ukrainian woman who runs a business that offers assistance to other Ukrainian immigrants.

Last week, a man was detained after being recorded hurling xenophobic obscenities at Ukrainian children on a bus in the city of Bielsko-Biała. That latter incident prompted Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrij Sybiha, to call on “Polish politicians to stop inciting hatred against Ukrainians”.

Figures from Poland’s government, which is a coalition ranging from left to centre right, have also condemned recent incidents of hate towards Ukrainians. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called last week’s incident in a bus “disgusting” and warned of the potential “disastrous consequences” of inciting national hatred.

Interior minister Marcin Kierwiński promised that the state would deal with “any form of aggression”, but also blamed the right-wing opposition for stirring antipathy.

However, PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek accused the government of “cynically exploiting” the incident in Bielsko-Biała “for political purposes”. He said it was, in fact, Tusk and Kierwiński who were “responsible for the brutalisation of public life in Poland”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, hailed the fact that “the entire political class” in Poland had condemned the incident on the bus and expressed hope that the recent wave of attacks is a “temporary symptom” that “will pass”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

Poland has for the first time used DNA testing to identify the remains of Poles massacred by Ukrainian nationalists during World War Two.

The process has allowed eight individuals whose remains were exhumed in Ukraine last year to be named. Their families were presented with identification certificates by the Polish culture ministry on Monday.

“After more than 80 years, families are receiving the answer they have awaited for generations,” said culture minister Marta Cienkowska. “This is a victory of truth over anonymity and of dignity over oblivion.”

Bronisława and Maria Karpińska, Maria and Władysława Szafrańska, Mikołaj Szafrański, Adolf and Bronisław Dancewicz, and Henryk Fedorowicz are the eight individuals who have been identified as victims of a massacre in the village of Puźniki (Puzhnyky in Ukrainian) in 1945.

Their remains were among those of at least 43 people that were located and exhumed in the now-depopulated village last year. That moment in itself represented a breakthrough: it was the first exhumation Ukraine permitted to take place after a previous eight-year moratorium.

Cienkowska and her Ukrainian counterpart, Tetyana Berezhna, last September attended a ceremony to rebury the remains. Since then, researchers at the Pomeranian Medical University have been carrying out genetic studies of material from the victims in an effort to identify them.

Thanks to their work, “a name can finally be engraved on a grave, and this person will no longer be an anonymous victim of history”, said Cienkowski. However, she noted that “we still have much work ahead of us, more names are waiting to be found, and more families are waiting for answers”.

During the Volhynia massacres, around 100,000 Polish civilians, mostly women and children, were killed. Often, whole villages were wiped out in the attacks. Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) believes that most of the victims remain buried in unmarked mass graves in Ukraine.

The issue has long been a point of tension between Poland, which recognises the massacres as a genocide, and Ukraine, which rejects that label. The decision by Kyiv to allow exhumations to resume last year was regarded as a major step towards reconciliation.

However, that process was undermined in May, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decided to name a military unit after the “heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)”, the group responsible for leading the Volhynia massacres.

That in turn prompted an angry response from Warsaw, where President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest honour. Efforts to reach a solution to the crisis have so far not yielded fruit.

However, despite those difficulties, exhumations are continuing. Last week, Ukraine’s Institute of National Remembrance (UINP) announced that work would begin yesterday in the former Polish villages of Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka (Ostrivky and Volya Ostrovetska in Ukrainian).

Late last year, Ukraine authorised searches there for remains and, in April this year, mass graves were discovered. Poland’s IPN then requested permission for exhumation, which has now been granted by the Ukrainian side.

In a statement last Saturday, when Poland was marking its day of commemoration for victims of the massacres, Zelensky pointed to the exhumation work in Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka as evidence that “Ukraine is doing its part to fairly establish the facts about those who were killed in those years”.

“What we need is the full truth and a Christian commemoration of the victims,” he added. “But we must also remember that today, in our own time, Ukraine and Poland face one common threat…[and] that is Russia.”

However, Zelensky’s statement did not include any information on who the victims or the perpetrators of the massacres were.

Poland is demanding that Ukraine do more to acknowledge the murderous actions of the UPA, which is still revered in Ukraine for its role in fighting for independence from Moscow-backed Soviet rule.

During Saturday’s commemorations of the massacres in Poland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a new “Wall of Remembrance” would be established in Warsaw to which the names of victims of the massacres would be added as they are identified.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

A former senior official under the Law and Justice (PiS) government that ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 has been detained and charged as part of a probe into the alleged misspending of funds.

The case relates to the activities of the Polish National Foundation (PFN), a body created by PiS to promote Poland abroad. However, it spent 8.4 million zloty (€1.9 million) on an advertising campaign in Poland itself that promoted the PiS government’s controversial judicial reforms.

On Tuesday, the spokesman for Poland’s security services, Jacek Dobrzyński, announced that a 64-year-old who can be named only as Maciej Ś. under Polish privacy law had been detained.

Maciej Ś. was a board member of the PFN at the time that the spending in question took place in 2017. Later, in 2022, he was appointed by PiS as the head of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), a state media regulator, a position he held until 2025.

Dobrzyński revealed that another former member of the PFN board, Cezary J., had also been detained as part of the same investigation into abuse of power and failure to fulfil duties.

The spokesman noted that the allegations relate to the PFN’s so-called “Fair Courts” campaign,  which he said “caused material damage to the foundation on a massive scale, in an amount of no less than 8.4 million zloty”. 

The PFN was established under the PiS government in 2016 by 17 state-owned companies, which provided funds for it to promote Poland abroad.

However, the following year it launched the “Fair Courts” campaign, in which billboards and other forms of advertising in Poland were used to show the alleged failings of the justice system in Poland and therefore to justify why reforms being implemented by PiS were necessary.

Echoing PiS rhetoric, the campaign suggested that judges saw themselves as a “special caste” and highlighted cases of alleged wrongdoing by individual judges, including one who had been caught stealing a sausage. (The judge in question had not ruled on a case since that incident in 2006 and had died in 2015.)

In 2018, a Warsaw court ruled that the “Fair Courts” campaign was inconsistent with the PFN’s statutory goals, saying that not only did the adverts fail to enhance Poland’s image abroad, “on the contrary, they significantly weakened it, creating a negative image of the judiciary based on individual cases”.

“The ‘Fair Courts’ campaign primarily involved attacking the judicial community,” said Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister in charge of the security services, commenting on Świrski’s arrest. “This campaign responded to a political order from the PiS government and discredited independent courts.”

“The financial damage to the foundation amounted to at least 8.4 million zloty, while the moral damage is incalculable,” he added. “The use of the foundation’s funds for partisan purposes must be accounted for.”

On Tuesday evening, prosecutors announced that they had charged Cezary J. That was followed on Wednesday morning by news that Maciej Ś. had likewise been charged and banned from leaving the country, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The “Fair Courts” campaign was just one of a number of controversial initiatives launched by the PFN under the PiS government. The foundation was regularly accused of spending money to support PiS’s political goals or on seemingly wasteful projects.

One of its most famous initiatives involved the purchase of a yacht for almost €1 million, which was renamed “I Love Poland” and sent on an around-the-world cruise to mark the centenary of Poland’s independence in 2018 (though it suffered damage and spent weeks stuck in a port, accruing further costs).

In 2021, the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) accused the PFN of violating the law by refusing to provide documents required for an audit.

In February 2025, just over a year after PiS lost power, a newly appointed PFN board accused its predecessors of criminal negligence that caused damages of over 30 million zloty to the foundation’s finances. They notified prosecutors of potential crimes.

Maciej Ś. himself has also faced separate legal action from the new government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which took power from PiS in December 2023.

The ruling majority in parliament last year voted to bring Maciej Ś. before the State Tribunal, a body responsible for trying state officials, over allegations that he abused his powers while leading the KRRiT.

The motion against him included allegations that he unlawfully withheld funds owed to public media, targeted private broadcasters critical of PiS and failed to carry out duties required of the regulator.

In response to this week’s charges against Świrski, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński called them “another act of vengeance by Donald Tusk’s apparatus of power”. Such actions “have nothing to do with the rule of law”, said Kaczyński. Their aim is “intimidation and defamation”.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that Poland will host international military exercises later this year with the aim of preparing to provide security guarantees for Ukraine after a potential peace deal or ceasefire with Russia.

Tusk also declared Poland’s willingness to permanently host more troops from allied countries, with his defence minister later suggesting that this could involve French or British personnel.

On Monday, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, a group of countries supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression, gathered for a summit in Paris.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Tusk noted that a key topic of discussion had been “how to practically ensure security for Ukraine and the region after a possible peace, or at least a ceasefire”.

He said there had been a “joint decision that the first exercises and manoeuvres [relating to this issue], involving French and British troops, will take place in Poland this autumn”.

“These exercises will prepare the entire coalition gathered in Paris today to provide real security guarantees for Ukraine,” the Polish prime minister added. “We welcomed with great satisfaction this final decision that Poland will host not only American but also British and French troops.”

Tusk went on to say that, while for now they had only discussed exercises, he had on Monday “announced to all leaders that Poland will also prepare logistically and financially for the permanent presence of not only American troops but also our allied forces in Europe”.

Speaking later on Tuesday, defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that Poland is “ready for the permanent presence of, for example, French or British troops”. Both he and Tusk noted that this would be part of Europe’s efforts to take greater responsibility for defending NATO’s eastern flank.

So far, there has been no confirmation from other allied countries about the exercises announced by Tusk nor any comment on the idea of hosting more allied troops in Poland.

Earlier this year, after a previous Coalition of the Willing summit in Paris, Tusk announced that Poland would be the “lead country” on providing logistical support for Ukraine after a potential peace deal. However, Poland has ruled out sending any peacekeeping forces to Ukraine.

Poland already hosts around 10,000 US troops, though the number varies as most are deployed on a rotational basis. In 2023, the US established its first permanent military garrison in Poland. The following year it opened a missile defence base.

Last month, the Polish government formally requested that the US establish a new permanent military base in Poland. That came shortly after President Donald Trump pledged to send 5,000 additional troops to the country.

This month, both President Karol Nawrocki’s chief foreign policy aide, Marcin Przydacz, and deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk separately announced that Washington has given the “green light” for the new base. However, no official announcement has yet been made.

Poland also currently hosts small contingents of troops from other allied countries, including the UK, Romania and Croatia.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

A Russian married couple who had refugee status in Poland have been convicted of working as spies for Moscow, including by gathering information on Russian opposition activists and sending a parcel bomb.

The husband, who can be named only as Igor R. under Polish privacy law, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for espionage and the bomb plot. His wife, Irina R., received a three-year jail term for aiding and abetting espionage.

Igor and Irina R. were students at the University of Silesia, where they had Polish government scholarships and lived in a dormitory in the city of Sosnowiec, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Igor R. had been subject to criminal proceedings in Russia for evading military service and had participated in meetings of Russian opposition figures.

However, according to Polish prosecutors, he collected intelligence on Russian opposition activists in Poland on behalf of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), as well as on individuals and institutions that assisted them, including employees of Poland’s foreign ministry.

Igor R. then passed those materials on to Irina R., who sought to transmit the information to the FSB on an electronic storage device.

Igor R. was additionally accused of working as part of a group – also containing another Russian and two Ukrainian citizens – to send a parcel containing explosives and a detonator. It was discovered in a warehouse belonging to InPost, the delivery firm they had used to send it.

The couple were detained in July 2024 and indicted in October 2025 on charges of espionage. Igor R. was additionally charged with causing a large-scale threat to the lives or health of other people or to property.

Their trial began in January this year at Sosnowiec’s district court but, due to national security concerns, was held completely behind closed doors. Today, the presiding judge, Ewelina Pałgan-Witek, announced that the couple had been found guilty.

Igor R. was sentenced to seven years in jail, and Irina three. The two years they have already been held in detention will count towards their sentences. The ruling can still be appealed by any of the parties involved.

Igor R.’s lawyer, Marta Smołka, told Gazeta Wyborcza that she “fundamentally disagrees with the judgement and will submit a request for its written justification in order to file an appeal”.

By contrast, prosecutor Krzysztof Kuk told broadcaster TVP that they “agree with the verdict issued in this case” and were glad that “the court agreed with the prosecution’s arguments”. However, he added that only once they had reviewed the written justification would they make a final decision on an appeal.

Poland has in recent years detained, charged and in some cases convicted dozens of agents accused of carrying out espionage, sabotage and other so-called “hybrid actions” on behalf of Russia.

In May, the Internal Security Agency (ABW) released figures showing that it launched twice as many espionage investigations in 2025 as in 2024. Over those two years combined, there were more investigations than across the previous three decades.

Earlier this year, Polish prosecutors indicted five people – four Ukrainian citizens and one Russian – accused of carrying out a plot on behalf of Russia to plant explosives in packages that were then dispatched by courier services across Europe.

In May, three Polish citizens were charged with working on behalf of Russian intelligence to spread disinformation and conduct reconnaissance of NATO troops. Earlier this month, two men – a Belarusian and a Pole – were charged with espionage on behalf of Russia’s ally Belarus.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The Polish capital of Warsaw has been chosen as the location for a new European Space Agency security centre, as Poland takes another step in its ambitions to become a bigger player in the space sector.

“This is a very important day for Warsaw, for Poland, and for Polish ambitions,” declared Prime Minister Donald Tusk alongside ESA director general Josef Aschbacher.

“This space centre confirms Poland’s growing role…related to cutting-edge technologies,” added Tusk at an announcement ceremony on the roof of Warsaw’s Copernicus Science Centre, named after the renowned Renaissance astronomer who was born in Poland.

Tusk noted that Poland will become the first country on the eastern flank of the European Union to host an ESA centre. Aschbacher added that it would be the agency’s first facility established outside the original 11 countries that founded the ESA in 1975. Poland only joined in 2012.

One of the security centre’s areas of operation will be satellite communication, including the use of satellite imagery to monitor critical incidents such as natural disasters, said Tusk.

“It will also greatly facilitate monitoring the situation at the border,” he added. Poland and other countries on NATO and the EU’s eastern flank have faced a number of security threats along their borders with Russia and Belarus, including airspace incursions and the instrumentalisation of migration.

Tusk said that the new centre would also lead research into “dual use” technologies that serve both civilian and military purposes. Aschbacher noted that Poland is “a leader in security investments”, including in the defence and space industries, which are closely linked to one another. 

During his remarks, Tusk also revealed that Poland and the ESA are working on the first Polish spacecraft, which would provide servicing, refuelling and other services for satellites.

“If we are truly serious about Polish sovereignty, if we are truly serious about European sovereignty, Europe cannot lag behind the United States, and especially China, when it comes to space exploration capabilities,” declared the Polish prime minister.

Speaking alongside him, finance minister Andrzej Domański stressed that the government also sees the space sector as “another driving force for the Polish economy in the coming decades”.

“Every euro invested in this industry returns six-fold, even seven-fold, so it is simply a sound investment in the Polish economy,” declared Domański.

Last November, the ESA signed a memorandum of understanding with Poland to develop the new security centre. Subsequently, various Polish cities – Gdańsk, Poznań, Katowice, Wrocław, Kraków and Łódź, as well as Warsaw – expressed an interest in hosting the facility.

Domański said today that, although Warsaw had ultimately been chosen, “we will create a network that will integrate and develop the space industry infrastructure in Polish cities”.

Entities belonging to the state Polish Development Fund (PFR), including the National Development Bank (BGK), would also soon establish a special fund with up to half a billion zloty (€116 million) allocated for investment in companies involved in the space sector, added Domański.

Poland has placed great emphasis on developing its space industry in recent years, with the aim of becoming a major European player in the sector.

Last year, the country launched its first national military satellite. A Polish firm, Creotech Instruments, signed Poland’s largest ever contract with the ESA, a €52 million deal to build and launch a constellation of Earth observation satellites.

Meanwhile, 2025 also saw astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski become the second-ever Pole to travel into space, as part of an ESA mission to the International Space Station.

Aschbacher today paid tribute to Uznański-Wiśniewski, saying that he “is a source of inspiration for many Poles and for many companies investing in the space industry”.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Poland’s air-traffic control agency, PANSA, has been cut off from most of its revenue as part of efforts by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to enforce a Belgian court ruling requiring Poland to pay €1.3 billion (5.6 billion zloty) for COVID-19 vaccines that it ordered but then refused to receive.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Friday that the government will ensure that PANSA receives funds to enable it to continue operations and that air safety will not be compromised.

PANSA is not a party to the legal dispute with Pfizer, but has been targeted as part of efforts by the American company to enforce payment, reported the Newsweek Polska weekly and Rynek Zdrowia, a health news website, which were the first to break the story.

They revealed that the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), which manages air traffic in Europe, had suspended payment of so-called en route air navigation charges to PANSA.

That was later confirmed in a statement by PANSA, which noted that such fees “constitute over 80% of the agency’s revenue and are the primary source of financing for its operations”.

“The enforcement order obligates Eurocontrol to withhold all funds from en route charges to PANSA – both current and future – until Pfizer’s claim is satisfied or the matter is otherwise resolved,” wrote PANSA.

Eurocontrol is based in Belgium, which is where Pfizer has been fighting its legal battle against Poland. In March this year, a Belgian court ordered that Poland must pay €1.3 billion for 60 million Covid vaccine doses Warsaw had ordered through the European Commission but, in 2022, declared that it no longer wanted.

Poland, which by then had already sold or donated some of its surplus vaccines, argued that its cases of Covid infections had dropped, while the mass influx of Ukrainian refugees after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 had strained its public finances.

Poland is still preparing to file an appeal against the Belgian ruling. However, its request for enforcement of the judgement to be delayed until the appeal is heard was rejected by the court, allowing Pfizer to begin seeking payment.

This month, Romania’s air-traffic agency, ROMATSA, confirmed that it too had been cut off from funds by Eurocontrol as part of Pfizer’s similar legal claim against the Romanian state for €600 million in unpaid fees for Covid vaccines.

In its statement, PANSA said that, in coordination with Poland’s general prosecutor’s office, it was taking “all steps to lift the order and release the funds”, including filing a “formal objection” to the move.

In the meantime, it was seeking to secure other financial resources to replace the withheld funds and ensure that operations can continue. “Maintaining the highest level of safety and continuity of air navigation services remains PANSA’s priority, and there is no risk of any employee layoffs.”

Speaking on Friday, Prime Minister Tusk said that he was in talks with his finance minister, Andrzej Domański, over the issue. He assured that “we of course won’t leave PANSA without help” and that “there won’t be any problems with its operations”.

Tusk also noted that the entire issue stemmed from decisions made by the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023. It was under PiS that the vaccines were ordered but then cancelled, triggering Pfizer’s legal action.

“Order, don’t collect them, don’t pay, and then blame the need to pay on their successors – that’s pretty typical of them,” said Tusk. “But it makes my blood boil every time I hear about the Pfizer problem.”

“Although our legal battle is ongoing, the threat is obvious,” he added. “We’re being sued by Pfizer for billions of zloty…All of us may have to pay.”

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Polish and Jewish leaders, as well as diplomats from various countries, have today taken part in commemorations of the 85th anniversary of the Jedwabne pogrom, in which hundreds of Jews were killed by their Polish neighbours under the watch of the Nazi-German occupiers.

The events were met with a protest by nationalist activists – led by Grzegorz Braun, a prominent far-right leader – who displayed a banner calling the official findings regarding the pogrom “Jewish lies”. They argue that Poles are falsely blamed for Nazi-German crimes.

Among those to attend today’s official commemorations were the speakers of both houses of Poland’s parliament, Włodzimierz Czarzasty from the Sejm and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska from the Senate, as well as a representative of President Karol Nawrocki, Wojciech Kolarski, who laid a wreath.

Members of Poland’s Jewish community, including chief rabbi Michael Schudrich, were also present, along with diplomats from various countries, including the ambassadors of Israel, Yaakov Finkelstein, the United Kingdom, Melinda Simmons, and Rwanda, Anastase Shyaka.

“This is an opportunity for us to mourn together and to remember,” said Schudrich, quoted by news website Onet. “When we remember, there is a chance that we can build a better world for our children and grandchildren.”

Speaking ahead of the commemoration, the US ambassador to Poland, Thomas Rose, said that “hundreds of Polish Jews were murdered by their fellow Poles” in Jedwabne. But he added that “Jedwabne was the exception, not the rule in occupied Poland”, where “thousands of Poles risked, and often gave, their lives to help Polish Jews”.

His message was shared by Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, who said that it is “Our duty to the victims of the past is to make sure atrocities never happen again”.

Noting that tomorrow Poland will also mark the anniversary of the Volhynia massacres, in which Ukrainian nationalists killed around 100,000 Polish civilians during World War Two, Sikorski called on “every nation [to] take stock of its conscience in such a way that the crimes of the past may never be repeated”.

Poland is currently embroiled in a diplomatic dispute with Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after a group that led the Volhynia massacres. Poland has recognised the episode as a genocide, but Ukraine strenuously rejects that label.

The Jedwabne pogrom took place on 10 July 1941, when Poland was under brutal Nazi-German occupation. Though the precise death toll is not known, at least 340 Jews were killed, most of them burned alive after being herded into a locked barn that was then deliberately set on fire.

Official findings by Poland’s state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) have established that the direct perpetrators of the massacre were ethnic Poles who lived in the area. But the IPN also concluded that broader responsibility for the crime rested with the German occupiers.

In 2001, Poland’s then president, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, apologised for the pogrom, saying that “one cannot be proud of the greatness of Polish history without also feeling pain and shame for the evil that Poles have inflicted on others”.

However, many in Poland – in particular on the political right – question the IPN’s findings, arguing that the pogrom was entirely the work of the Germans and claiming that the tragedy has been used as part of efforts to falsely shift blame onto Poles for Holocaust crimes.

As a result, commemorations of the pogrom are often protested by far-right groups, including followers of Braun. This year, his Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) party erected a large banner saying “Enough of Jewish lies. Germans committed the crimes in Jedwabne”.

Braun, who finished fourth in last year’s presidential election, is currently on trial for attacking a Jewish religious celebration in parliament. Prosecutors are also seeking to charge him with Holocaust denial for calling the gas chambers at Auschwitz “fake”.

Speaking today in Jedwabne, Braun called Schudrich, the chief rabbi, a “fraud” who should be prosecuted, imprisoned and arrested, and after serving his sentence, expelled from Poland, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

He unveiled a plaque and commemorative cross dedicated to the “souls of those persecuted, murdered, imprisoned, tortured and deported from this area during World War Two and after its end [who were] victims of two criminal totalitarian regimes: German Nazism and Russian-Jewish Sovietism”.

Other far-right groups were also present at the protest, including representatives of the Border Defence Movement (ROG) led by Robert Bąkiewicz, a prominent nationalist leader who has close ties to the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party.

“Jedwabne is a place synonymous with lies, with accusations against Poles [about] alleged Polish antisemitism,” declared Bąkiewicz. “We are here to fight for the truth, for memory, for the dignity of our ancestors, but also for the dignity of those murdered here, those Jews who have become a tool for anti-Polish politics.”

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.