According to a survey by the IBRIS laboratory for ‘Rzeczpospolita’, Poland should have nuclear weapons as part of NATO, but Poles are afraid that Russia will use such a bomb in Ukraine.

54.1 % of respondents believe that Poland should participate in NATO’s ‘Nuclear Sharing’ programme which would allow to have nuclear weapons. Only 29.5 % are against it, the rest have no opinion.

The people who are “‘in favour” include mainly supporters of the United Right (68 %), young people under the age of 29 (93 %), residents of large cities (64 %), people with secondary education (60 %) and those who get their knowledge from TVP’s ‘News’ (72 %).

NATO’s Nuclear Sharing programme makes it possible to make nuclear warheads available to member states without such weapons. Since November 2009, US nuclear weapons have been in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey under the programme.

Nuclear Sharing does not expand the group of countries that possess nuclear weapons. Currently, nine states in the world, including three NATO members, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, have nuclear weapons.

The topic of making nuclear weapons available to Poland first appeared in an interview by President Andrzej Duda.

“Poland has been discussing with the United States the possibility of extending to our country the policy of making nuclear weapons available within the framework of NATO”, said Andrzej Duda.

In the president’s opinion, with such nuclear threats Poland should perhaps think about a ‘nuclear umbrella’.

In the poll, Rzeczpospolita also asked whether respondents were concerned that Putin would use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. The IBRiS survey shows that such fears are shared by as many as 48.7 % of respondents, with 39.6 % holding the opposite view.

Adrian Andrzejewski