Marking the 22nd anniversary of Poland's accession to the European Union, Prime Minister Donald Tusk published a video on social media on Friday - showing people celebrating on May 1, 2004 at Castle Square in Warsaw.
"Even back then we already knew it was a good decision. 22 years of pride!" - Prime Minister Tusk captioned the footage.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, the Polish Peasants' Party leader Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, noted in a commemorative post that EU membership also represents a shared responsibility for Europe's security.
"Our response to current threats is the SAFE program. It means more European cooperation, more investment in defense, and stronger, shared responsibility. Poland is and will be an active participant in this process" - he emphasised on X.
Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński, added that the EU membership is a huge success for Poles and Poland. "We play on one strong team, and no one can take that away from us" - he wrote.
Other politicians from the ruling-bloc-leading Civic Coalition party shared this enthusiasm. Government spokesman Adam Szłapka wrote on X that Poland's 22 years in the European Union are a piece of history unfolding before our eyes. "We are not slowing down. We are moving forward!" - he concluded.
Minister of Finance and Economy, Andrzej Domański, emphasized that joining the EU was a decision to open up to the world and accelerate development.
"Thanks to the work and entrepreneurship of Poles, companies and wages have grown - and the gap to the most developed economies has clearly narrowed. Today, this achievement guides us further: Poland is joining the ranks of the world's most important economies, present at the G20 table - as an increasingly strong voice for the region and Europe" - he commented in his social media entry.
The ruling coalition junior partner, The Left, emphasized that Poland joined the EU when they were at the country's helm - and that the process was led by then-President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, also representing this party.
"Today, when great powers are trying to disrupt the order based on international law, opting for power politics - it is more important than ever to strengthen the international organizations on which our security depends. Poland is and will remain in Europe. It is safe to say that Poland's membership in the European Union is one of the best decisions in the history of our country. We will defend this presence - decisively and without compromise" - the Left emphasized in a post on X.
Not all Polish politicians were that happy about the EU joining anniversary, though. Jacek Sasin is a current MP, who was Poland's Minister of State Assets in the government of the previously-ruling-now-opposition-leading Law and Justice conservative party, known for being strongly at odds with Brussels.
On the anniversary, he published a graphic on X with an outline map of Europe and the slogan "Yes to the EU and sovereign states. No to the Fourth Reich" - accompanied by a rant besmirching Brussels' "liberals and post-communists, in their frenzy of federalization [...] pushing the EU into ideological experiments, hostile migration, a 250-gender system, and increasingly oppressive regulations".
As of Friday evening, Law and Justice backed President Karol Nawrocki only mentioned the anniversary in the bylines of his post on X dedicated to the the results of the most recent Polish-American Strategic Dialogue round of talks.
"Today, on the anniversary of Poland's accession to the European Union, we understand this even better: only through cooperation based on respect for sovereignty and solidarity can we build a better future" - President Nawrocki wrote.
Those even further to the right on Poland's political scene, like the leaders of the nationalist Konfederacja party (now split in two due to inner conflicts), in most cases decided to completely ignore the bloc-joining anniversary.
Coming back to the liberal ruling coalition, its another junior partner, the Poland 2050 party, pointed out in its anniversary post that the country's far right is increasingly vocal about Polexit.
"Poles decided (to join the EU) in a referendum, and Poles should always have the final say. [...] The anti-Polexit law proposed by Poland 2050 guarantees one thing: if it ever comes to this, it's the citizens who will decide on such a fundamental issue, in a two-tier referendum - and not politicians by a simple majority vote. The problem is that our bill has been frozen in a parliamentary committee for over a year. It's time to get it out and secure Poland's future" - the party's representatives appealed on X.
A CBOS poll conducted in the days leading up to Poland's accession to the EU showed that 64% of Polish residents supported integration, while 29% opposed it.
Over 20 years later, in a March 2026 IBRiS poll for commercial TV broadcaster Polsat News, 72.8% of respondents opposed Poland's exit from the European Union, while 22.9% supported the notion of Polexit. Furthermore, 56.6% of the poll's participants voiced the opinion that Poland had benefited more than it had lost following its accession to the EU, while 18.1% believed that from a 22-year perspective, the move had not been beneficial after all.
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Source: IAR, PAP