POLAND: The 2026 Budget & more – 4th Sep 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 4th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s start off with internal affairs. On Thursday the 28th of August, the government approved the twenty twenty-six budget, allocating big money to housing and defence.

Social housing will get five billion zloty, around one billion dollars, double last year’s amount, while the army will get a record 200 billion złoty, about 55 billion dollars.

PM Tusk said that trying to spend less to avoid a big budget deficit won’t keep Poland safe, and that what really matters is having a strong, well-equipped army, especially with the war in Ukraine still going.

In updates to a disputed law we covered last week, on Tuesday, the 9th, the interior ministry shared a draft law that would give non-EU parents some family benefits. They can get the 800 Plus monthly child allowance if they’re working and their children go to school. The draft also includes the Good Start one-time yearly payment of 300 złoty, about eighty dollars, per child who begins school. Foreigners who want to receive this benefit have to be employed or covered by health insurance.

The draft would also tighten checks, like showing up in person to apply for a national identification number or PESEL, using fingerprints for ID, and having the Social Insurance Institution verify residency monthly with the Border Guard.

For Ukrainians, temporary protection would now last until March twenty twenty-six, allowing them to live, work, and use collective housing in Poland, while maintaining some tax breaks and aid.

Speaking of Ukraine, on Thursday, the 28th, President Karol Nawrocki, met with the leaders of the Baltic states and Denmark in Warsaw, with Ukraine’s President Zelensky joining via a video call.

They talked mainly about security in the Baltic Sea, Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and the ongoing peace talks led by US President Donald Trump. Poland stressed the importance of hearing Ukraine’s side, including the chances for a ceasefire and what’s happening on the ground and the country’s political front.

On that note about Nawrocki, on Wednesday, the 3rd, he visited the White House and met with US President Donald Trump for talks on security and NATO cooperation.

Trump said that the US isn’t taking its troops out of Poland and might even send more. He praised Poland for boosting defense spending and said the US and Poland are on the same page when it comes to security and dealing with Russia.

Nawrocki said Poles are happy to have American troops, calling it a first in Polish history and a clear message to Russia that the US and Poland are united. He added that US soldiers have basically become part of Polish society.

Poland hosts over 10,000 US troops, including the V Corps HQ in the city of Poznań, in west-central Poland, a key pillar of NATO’s eastern defense.

In another meeting, on Sunday, the 31st, PM Tusk and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Krynki, a small town right on Poland’s border with Belarus, to discuss security and defence. The talks also focused on the EU’s SAFE program, which offers preferential loans to help Europe strengthen its defence capabilities as Russia continues expanding its military.

They met with border guards and military officers to check out Poland’s frontier, which features a five-meter, about eighteen-foot steel fence stretching 186 km, about 116 miles. There’s also an electronic barrier covering over 200 km, nearly 120 miles, and a 171-km (106-mile) electronic barrier along the Bug River near Lublin, in eastern Poland.

Later, Tusk and von der Leyen inspected storage sites for the planned East Shield system and parts of the upgraded border barrier.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the 2nd of September, Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, met with Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, in Miami to talk about NATO’s eastern flank, security, energy cooperation, and how to bring about lasting peace to Ukraine.

They also discussed keeping US troops in Poland to strengthen NATO’s eastern edge and making sure Ukraine gets strong security guarantees.

They also attended a ceremony awarding the Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Prize to Berta Soler Fernandez, a Cuban activist defending human rights. Sikorski also gave Rubio a historic Solidarity poster signed by Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

On the same day, Adam Szłapka, the government spokesman, said that Poland will vote against the EU–Mercosur trade deal and try to convince other EU countries to reject it. The deal, covering Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, would cut tariffs, simplify trade, and align rules with international standards. Talks have been going on for almost twenty-five years, and Mercosur is the last major group of Latin American countries that doesn’t have a special trade deal with the EU.

Szłapka said Poland’s main concern is food standards, worrying that South American products don’t meet EU rules. He added that Poland is working closely with France, which shares the same concerns.

The deal’s final text goes to the European Commission this week before moving on to the EU Council and Parliament.

Next up, on Thursday the 28th, Poland kicked off a new Satellite Mission Control Center at the Military University of Technology in Warsaw.

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Defence Minister and Deputy PM, said it’s another step in using modern tech to make the country safer.

The center has a rooftop antenna that constantly collects satellite signals in any weather and uses AI to turn them into clear images.

By the end of this year, the center will manage Poland’s four existing satellites and plans to launch three small nanosatellites this month.

On a sad note, on Thursday the 28th, Major Maciej Krakowian, one of Poland’s top F-16 pilots, died when his plane crashed during AirShow practice in Radom, in central Poland.

The military, President Nawrocki, and other top officials expressed their condolences.

The military also called it a huge loss, saying the accident was unexpected and tragic, as airshow pilots are highly skilled professionals, trained for safety, and every show is carefully planned with safety teams on the ground. They added that airshows also give pilots and crews important practice and show off the Polish Air Force’s skills and modern equipment.

Investigations into the crash are ongoing, with military investigators, prosecutors, and the Military Gendarmerie examining the site, interviewing witnesses, and analyzing the plane.

In more news from Thursday, Onet, a popular Polish online news portal, published a survey showing that nearly half of Poles don’t share the Polish Bishops’ view that the new health education subject in schools, which includes sex education, corrupts children.

Social Watch Research, a market research and opinion polling company, conducted the survey on Tuesday the 26th, with more than 800 adults across Poland participating. It showed that forty-eight percent of respondents disagreed with the Bishop, twenty-two percent agreed, seventeen didn’t know about the topic, and eleven had no opinion. Men agreed with the Church slightly more than women, and people in smaller towns worried more that the subject was inappropriate for children than those in bigger cities.

Schools will introduce health education classes in the twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six school year to help students take care of their physical and mental health, stay safe online, and build healthy relationships.

Finishing off with an update to a story from a previous show… Even though Robert Lewandowski, Poland’s most famous footballer, quit as captain of the national team, he didn’t leave them hanging. On Monday, the 1st, he was back in the field as the team kicked off a training camp under new coach Jan Urban, getting ready for World Cup qualifiers against the Netherlands and Finland.

Lewandowski skipped the last camp and stepped down from the captaincy under former coach Michał Probierz, but now he said he wants to leave the captaincy drama behind and focus on the team, though he’s not sure if he can handle two full matches after a recent muscle injury.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

We want to make this update better. Any ideas? Suggestions? Send them out to info@rorshok.com

Do zobaczenia!