If the current opposition, i.e. mainly the Civic Platform, had ruled in Poland at the time of the outbreak of the war, the social reaction to the war would probably have been very similar to the one we’ve seen over the last 12 months and of which we are rightly very proud. Poles would welcome refugees into their homes, they would also rush with humanitarian aid, with gestures of solidarity and support. But already at the state aid level, the reality would be different. Maybe very different. With a very high probability, we would not give our tanks, crabs, ammunition. We would not be the ones to break the resistance of other countries, to pull, to set an example. We would wait for Germany’s steps, and they would be even less energetic than now – because there would be no pressure from Warsaw. Financial aid would also not flow to Kiev. And these are not empty speculations: in 2014 Donald Tusk, then Prime Minister, delegated this issue to international institutions:
Don’t forget to celebrate great social reflexes strategic decisions regarding the delivery of unprecedented aid were made by specific people. Specific politicians. The most important decision, of course, was made by Jarosław Kaczyński, who spoke about it in an interview with the weekly “Sieci”:
To the best of our knowledge, have you personally decided to provide Poland with immediate assistance, on the largest possible scale?
Yes that’s right. I decided to use all the possibilities of our political camp, of all those who wanted to cooperate with us, to help fight Ukraine. We decided that we would do everything possible at the central level, with the full involvement of the government, ministries and agencies of the Polish state. (…) We knew we had to set a good example for others. We provided effective assistance with military equipment, tanks, howitzers, ammunition and other equipment, which many experts say was crucial to Ukraine’s survival in the first months of the battle.
As so often in our history, the efforts of the Polish state and the Polish authorities are not well appreciated by the allies, by European and world opinion. The reasons are well known: ideological tensions, the game to overthrow our government, the inability to admit errors of judgment. But history will give fair judgment in the end and will appreciate what the government in Warsaw has done for the Ukrainian cause. And he did much, much more than he had to, than “it was appropriate”. In fact, he saved Ukraine. All of that it also sounded too weak in President Joe Biden’s speech in Warsaw. It is good that he thanked all of Poland, but it is a pity that he did not notice this – and that – as a result of which Poland gave not 100, not 200, but 300 percent more than could be expected.
READ: ONLY WITH US. Prime Minister Morawiecki in Kyiv. Fotyga: Poland was the first country to comply with the obligations of the Leopard Coalition
Source: wPolityce