Between Solidarity and National Interest: Populism in the Polish Parliamentary Debate on Aid to Ukraine. The Case of the Law and Justice Party

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 constituted a significant geopolitical event, and the proximity and consequences of the conflict have contributed to the high level of interest among political actors in Poland. Consequently, the war in Ukraine constituted a constant topic of discussion within the Polish parliamentary debate. The article presents the results of research on the problematization and use of populist arguments in parliamentary speeches by Law and Justice MPs on the subject of Poland's aid to Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens. Law and Justice is Poland's leading right-wing political party. Its political programme is based on the principles of social-sovereignist conservatism, Euroscepticism and populism. The party was in power in Poland in 2005-2007 and 2015-2023. Since 2023, Law and Justice has been the key opposition party, actively using the issue of migration to increase its electoral capital. The position of Law and Justice on aid to Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens was reconstructed on the basis of parliamentary speeches by individual MPs, which were the units of analysis. The analysis is qualitative and encompasses the period between February 2022 and February 2026. Qualitative content analysis and frame analysis were used to identify references to populist arguments in parliamentary speeches. The frames identified in the speeches were inspired by frames typical of the populist style of communication including people-centralism, anti-elitism, simplification of reality, feeling of ‘the crisis’, ‘bad manners’. However, due to the specificity of the subject matter, it was decided to operationalise the issue-specific frames. The analytical method was inductive, whereby sub-frames occurring in the texts were identified and then aggregated into an overarching frame. The speeches of members of parliament were analyzed using the Atlas.it program. The research procedure entailed seeking responses to the following questions: 1. Which populist frames did the Law and Justice party use to justify their position on providing Ukraine with political, social, economic and military support? Furthermore, how have these changed? 2. What was the meaning of each frame in the Law and Justice party's populist argumentation? 3. What was the Law and Justice party's attitude towards providing political, social, economic and military assistance to Ukraine? How has this attitude evolved? The study will identify the dominant themes and arguments used by Law and Justice in public debate, as well as changes resulting from external factors, such as the intensity of military operations in Ukraine and the international situation, and internal factors, such as the political calendar, domestic political events and the change in role from ruling party to opposition party.