Poland repays Ukraine loan. Leszek Miller: Scandal, we have to say "enough"

The head of the Confederation club, Grzegorz Płaczek, announced on social media the response of the Ministry of Finance to his parliamentary question on financial aid for Ukraine, that "in accordance with the request of the Ukrainian side" and the agreement concluded by Poland with the European Commission, in 2024 Poland repaid over PLN 102 million in interest on the loan taken out by Ukraine from the EC. The document signed by Deputy Minister Hanna Majszczyk states that Poland will repay this interest until the end of 2027.

- This is another scandal - former Prime Minister Leszek Miller assessed on Saturday on Polsat News. - A double scandal, because the decision was made, from what we hear, in 2022, it is 2025 and it was only revealed today - he added.

- Which prime minister decided that we would pay interest on a loan that Ukraine took out in the European Union? Well, Prime Minister Morawiecki, who is extremely eloquent, likes to talk a lot, but he has never said anything about it. Was he ashamed? Was he afraid? Did he feel that it was not right? Because it is not right - said the former head of government, who was a member of the European Parliament in 2019-2024, elected from the lists of the European Coalition.

Leszek Miller noted that Mateusz Morawiecki often said that there was a lack of money for healthcare and "thousands of different things", and suddenly "he takes on obligations with one hand that should not exist at all". - Because if the European Union has such a gesture towards Ukraine, it should write off all this interest - he assessed.

A different opinion was expressed in an interview with Polsat News by former Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak, who was also asked about the next installments of interest on the Ukrainian loan that Polish taxpayers will have to repay. He expressed the view that the matter should be viewed "in the context of broadly understood Polish security, strategic security". - These are not very large amounts from this point of view. If we are talking about a strategic approach, it seems that preventing the situation in Ukraine from collapsing is very important here, because if it happened, the front would be broken, then we would have a humanitarian catastrophe much greater than even the one that occurred during the first weeks after the Russian aggression against Ukraine - he argued.

Leszek Miller disagreed with him. - There are some limits of decency - he said, recalling that Poland was "very deeply" involved in helping Ukraine, providing it with equipment and material support. - Every Polish government must remember that it is a Polish government and that it must fulfill Polish obligations first, not Ukrainian or any other - he emphasized.

- Besides - here I am in deep dispute with Prime Minister Pawlak - I do not believe that our security depends on Ukraine - emphasized the former SLD leader. He argued that Poland's security depends on its place in NATO. - NATO is the guarantor of our security, not any other country - he added.

On Saturday, June 14, the Equality Parade organized by the LGBT community took place in Kyiv (in the photo, one of the participants has the image of Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, on her T-shirt)...

Photo: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

...and a demonstration by those opposed to the event.

Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter

In response, Waldemar Pawlak said that 100 million zlotys in interest on the Ukrainian loan is an amount that could buy one tank. According to him, for the Polish state "this type of aid is a significant support for Ukraine and in no way reduces our defense capabilities."

- I think that children in oncology wards who are waiting for PLN 10 million, not PLN 100 million, are happy to listen to an outstanding politician who has something like that to tell them - commented Miller.

Zaporozhye. Destroyed cars and damaged shopping center building, photo from June 14

Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

Pawlak accused him of using a "very nasty rhetorical device, as if this money were taking away funds for oncology hospitals". - This is absolute nonsense - he assessed. He asked Miller to indicate a hospital that lacks funds for oncology for children. Leszek Miller replied that in the next joint program on Polsat News he would indicate more than one such facility.

- We are not a bottomless pit. (...) Our budget is not a bottomless pit and we must finally say: this much we can do, and this much we cannot do, enough - he emphasized.