Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks during the presentation of the programme of the Polish Presidency as part of a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on January 22, 2025. (Photo by FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP)
Warsaw: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday threw his weight behind proposals to toughen the rules on child benefits paid out to the country's nearly one million Ukrainian refugees.
Warsaw has been one of Kyiv's staunchest allies since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
But Tusk's ruling coalition has begun to consider restricting some welfare payments to those refugees.
With a presidential election coming up in May, it faces an electoral threat from the nationalists and the far right.
At the moment, all parents -- including Ukrainians -- can claim monthly benefits of 800 zlotys ($198) for each child under the age of 18.
Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski, nominated by Tusk's Civic Coalition as its presidential candidate, recently floated the idea of limiting that payment to parents living and paying taxes in the eastern European NATO member.
Trzaskowski, a self-proclaimed Europhile, is the frontrunner to become Poland's next president.
But he will face off against both hardline nationalists and far-right candidates who have voiced Ukraine-sceptic views bordering on anti-Ukrainian.
"Rafal Trzaskowski's proposal to pay the 800 only to those migrants, including Ukrainians, who live, work and pay taxes in our country, will be examined urgently by the government," wrote Tusk on X. "I am in favour of it."
But Families Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak, who represents the left wing of Tusk's coalition, immediately denied that her department was working on plans to introduce that restriction.
The 800-zloty benefit "is an allowance for children and therefore children should benefit from it", she stressed.
