Poland’s president has vetoed legislation to prolong welfare payments for Ukrainian refugees, honouring a campaign pledge to tighten support at a time of rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment in the country.
Karol Nawrocki, who took office earlier this month after his spring election victory, said only Ukrainians in work should be entitled to child benefit.
“We remain open to providing assistance to Ukrainian citizens that hasn’t changed,” Nawrocki said in a statement. “But after three and a half years, our law should be amended.”
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The bill, which Nawrocki rejected on Monday, would have extended the existing system of payments, due to expire in September, until March 2026. Around 1 million refugees, most of them women and children, are believed to have settled in Poland since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The decision drew sharp criticism from the government. The prime minister, Donald Tusk, and labour minister, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, both condemned the move. “We cannot punish people for losing their job, particularly not innocent children. This is the ABC of human decency,” Dziemianowicz-Bąk wrote on X. The monthly benefit is 800 złoty (£162).
In a statement, the president’s office defended the veto, saying: “President Nawrocki does not agree to the privileged treatment of citizens of other countries. That is why he has decided to veto the bill on assistance for Ukrainian citizens in its current form and will present his own legal proposals.”
The deputy prime minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, said the veto also jeopardised Poland’s continued financing of Starlink satellite internet for Ukraine. “This is the end of Starlink internet, which Poland provides to Ukraine as it wages war,” he warned on X. Nawrocki’s office later told Reuters that funding could continue if parliament backed his alternative bill before the end of September.
Poland was one of the most welcoming European states to Ukrainians in the early months of the war, with many Poles offering homes, donations and support. But resentment has grown, despite evidence that refugees have strengthened the economy. A study by Poland’s National Development Bank this year found Ukrainians had paid more in taxes than they had received in benefits, and that their labour was vital for economic stability.
Bartosz Cichocki, Poland’s ambassador to Ukraine until 2023, said the change in mood was predictable. “After the euphoric solidarity in 2022, the climax of social and political support, there had to be some sort of swing to the other side. We are now in this other extreme. I believe at some point this will calm down and we will reach a balanced approach,” he said.
