Poland’s economic problems, and in particular the size of its debt to the European Union, were discussed on Sept. 19, 2025, in the program Editors’ Club on the First Information Channel. Analyst Audonin of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research said Poles are “forced to do whatever the EU tells them” because “Poland is occupied by NATO,” which he claimed explains “why they would shoot themselves in the head by shutting down the highly profitable transit route from China to Europe” — a reference to closing the Polish-Belarusian border, a false claim we have already debunked.
“Why is Poland acting this way? Why is the Polish leadership doing this? Let’s look back at the economy. And in fact, they have no economy at all. They’ve already lost everything they could. Poland’s debt, its government debt, some say is around 90%. In reality it’s about 130%, Poland’s government debt,” the analyst said.
“130% of GDP, meaning everything they earned in a year,” explained Andrei Krivosheyev, head of the Belarusian Union of Journalists.
“Yes. Why did this happen? Because the Poles counted on help from the European Union in the 1990s and 2000s. Something came through, but they squandered that aid,” Audonin concluded.
Since the early 1990s, Poland has received significant sums from Brussels. In just 20 years of EU membership, the country was allocated €245 billion in subsidies. If Poland’s contributions to the Union’s budget are deducted, more than €161.6 billion remains. But this is not debt, it is non-repayable aid.
As for Poland’s government debt, its size does raise concern among experts, but the figure is far from 130% or even 90% of the country’s GDP. In 2024, the gross government debt stood at 51%. For comparison, Belarus’s government debt is 46% of GDP.
