Nawrocki vetoes Poland's DSA bill, sparking clashes between Tusk and the president

The veto and the bill

President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the bill on Friday, 13 November. It was the second part of the legislation implementing the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) in Poland, prepared by the Ministry of Digitalisation. The draft would have let courts and designated authorities issue fast orders restricting access to unlawful online content, including online fraud, identity theft, human trafficking, counterfeit sales and illegal trade in goods. Critics said it would also let the head of the electronic communications office (UKE), who answers to the digitalisation minister, order administrative blocking. The EU regulation has applied for more than two years, and failing to implement it risks heavy fines from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Nawrocki announced the veto on social media. He said he would not yield to pressure from the ruling camp.

“I will not give in to any blackmail from the ruling camp, all the more so if security and freedom are to be the hostages.”

He argued that the state already has a wide range of tools against criminals, and that any strengthening of the law should come as proposals from the government. He said the bill could normally have been reviewed by the Constitutional Tribunal, but that the Tribunal must first be rebuilt, so the veto was the only option.

Government camp reaction

Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded on X on Friday with a post listing who, in his view, welcomed the veto. He added that Polish children, parents and the safety of all citizens were its victims, and that this could not be justified in any way. Earlier he had described protecting children from online criminals as a cause that should unite politics beyond divisions, before the president vetoed the bill anyway.

“Haters, Russian troll farms, paedophiles, extreme nihilists and lobbyists are pleased with the presidential veto.”

Digitalisation minister Krzysztof Gawkowski called Friday the 13th a black day for the online safety of Poles. Government spokesman Adam Szłapka said Nawrocki, who portrays himself as a defender of sovereignty, had in effect handed control of the Polish internet to Meta and TikTok. On Saturday, 14 November, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski wrote on X, referring to the president's Independence Day remarks, that it was a shame sovereignty was used mainly against Poland's EU membership.

“It is a pity he uses sovereignty mostly to attack our EU membership, rather than defending it against internet oligarchs.”

The Kraków attack and the online content debate

On 13 November, Jan Grabiec, head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, linked the veto to the online activity of the perpetrator of the 7 November attack in Kraków. His post drew on a Wirtualna Polska report that the perpetrator had co-organised virtual terrorist attacks in computer games. Grabiec wrote that, because of the veto, children would still be exposed to such content. Lawyer Magdalena Majkowska replied that the perpetrator's profiles had been removed immediately, and asked why a law giving officials power to block content was needed. MP Andrzej Śliwka and Stanisław Żaryn pointed out that DSA applies directly in Poland and that platforms must already remove illegal content, including terrorist material within an hour under EU rules from 2022 or provisions from 2024. Gawkowski also accused the president of accepting pornography at a press conference, a claim critics called manipulative, noting that a citizens' bill to restrict minors' access to such content has lain in the Sejm for months.

Online reaction

Adam Andruszkiewicz, deputy head of the presidential chancellery, wrote on X that government figures had talked about shutting social media and had shared an AI-altered photo of Nawrocki near the Constitutional Tribunal. He called giving such powers to the ruling coalition the 'suicide of democracy' in Poland, and said polls suggest the coalition will most likely lose power next year. A Res Futura Data House analysis put the topic's online reach at 23.5 million and found that 56% of opinions backed the veto. It also found that 73% of comments under coalition politicians' posts criticising the president defended him.

X39%

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Anger41%

Approval29%

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Anger

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