Karol Nawrocki, Polish President: Europe has lost its way
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nick Robinson speaks to Polish President Karol Nawrocki about Trump, Russia and the future of Europe.
A historian and a boxer by background, he was elected in June 2025 with the support of Poland’s conservative opposition Law and Justice Party.
A social conservative and devout Catholic, he is also an outspoken critic of the European Union and staunch supporter of Donald Trump, believing that the US President is the only person who can stop the threat to Europe from Vladimir Putin’s Russia: "Europe for a number of years was involved in not so important things, in ideological issues such as Green Deal for instance, climate policy, migration issues. It was not building its resilience and its security."
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, American singer-songwriter Patti Smith and Jordan Bardella, leader of the National Rally in France. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Nick Robinson Producers: Oscar Pearson and Lucy Sheppard Editor: Justine Lang
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(Image: Polish President Karol Nawrocki. Credit: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, I'm Nick Robinson, BBC presenter, and this is the interview from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:11.1 | the best conversations coming out of the BBC, people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:18.0 | Today we are spending trillions on war and peanuts on peace. |
| 0:21.6 | Wind power in the United States has been subsidized for 33 years. Isn't that enough? |
| 0:26.2 | Solar for 25 years. That's enough. I don't have army. I don't have missile rockets. I have my |
| 0:33.2 | budget. I have my voice. I love singing and so my goal was always to do better and better at it. |
| 0:38.6 | I was still in an induced coma in hospital when the world was defining me. |
| 0:44.6 | For this interview, I spoke to the president of Poland, Carol Novrotsky, a historian and a boxer by background. |
| 0:51.2 | He was elected in June 2025 with the support of Poland's Conservative |
| 0:55.6 | opposition, Law and Justice Party. He's a social conservative, a devout Catholic, and a staunch |
| 1:02.7 | supporter of Donald Trump, telling me that the US President is the only person who can stop |
| 1:08.5 | the threat to Europe coming from Vladimir Putin's Russia. |
| 1:12.9 | President of Rotsky is also, like Donald Trump, an outspoken critic of the EU. |
| 1:19.4 | Europe, he says, has lost its way. |
| 1:22.6 | Europe for a number of years was involved in not so important things, in ideological issues, |
| 1:30.3 | such as Green Deal, for instance, climate policy, migration issues, it was not building its resilience and its security. |
| 1:38.3 | In Poland, we allocate close to 5% of GDP on defence. |
| 1:42.3 | Central and Eastern Europe is aware of Russian threat. |
| 1:46.1 | So the matter of defense of common defense of European Union, all those issues lie with |
| 1:51.1 | Central and Eastern Europe. |
| 1:53.4 | And I'm happy that Europe is mature enough to understand this threat after many years. |
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