Polish cadets attend a parade in the Polish capital Warsaw | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty New Polish military force worries political opposition New units will operate outside normal military chain of command.

WARSAW — The Polish parliament on Wednesday approved the creation of a new territorial defense force aimed at deterring a possible Russian attack that critics say could end up serving as the armed wing of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party.

The force would be made up of 53,000 part-time soldiers stationed throughout the country by 2019. That would constitute a third of all Polish military personnel.

The bill still has to be approved by the Polish Senate, where the government has a majority.

“The units are the cheapest way to increase the strength of the armed forces and the defense capabilities of the country," Antoni Macierewicz, Poland’s defense minister, told reporters. "It is also the best response to the dangers of a hybrid war like the one following Russia's aggression in Ukraine."

The government said the units will become Poland’s "fifth service," alongside land, sea, air, and special forces. As the proposals currently stand, the units would have their own separate command center, and the head of the new force will report directly to Macierewicz, bypassing the command structure of the rest of the armed forces.

“It’s too early to say what precisely the government intends to do with these units,” said Marek Świerczyński, a defense analyst with Polityka Insight, a Warsaw think tank. “But it’s not too early to say that it appears to be constructing a parallel army outside of established military structures.”

"Minister Macierewicz is creating his own private army" -- Katarzyna Lubnauer, deputy leader of the opposition Modern party

The defense ministry said about 6-8 percent of the troops will be made up of professional soldiers and command the volunteers. Members of paramilitary groups, rifle associations, and battle re-enactors are expected to play a major role. Membership of those organizations surged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

“Our membership rose from about 6,000 at the beginning of 2014 to around 100,000 by the end of 2015,” said General Bogusław Pacek, founding president of the Federation of Pro-Defense Organizations, an umbrella group.

Political connections

Macierewicz is a close ally and confidant of Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński. Unlike Kaczyński, his political roots can be traced to the radical nationalist right, making him a hero to many young right-wingers, and a valuable bridge to PiS’s right flank.

In testimony before a parliamentary committee earlier this year, defense ministry officials said the new force’s purpose "should be to strengthen the patriotic and Christian foundations of our defense system and the armed forces, with the patriotism and faith of Polish soldiers as the best guarantee of our security."

Although some far-right leaders have said they plan to encourage their members to join the new paramilitary units, the government has maintained it would be wrong to exclude anyone on the basis of political beliefs. All recruits will be required to pass “psychological examinations,” the ministry told POLITICO in a statement.

According to the government’s plans, in addition to their military duties the units will have responsibility for "anti-crisis measures, anti-subversion, anti-terrorism and anti-disinformation in defense of civil security and the cultural heritage of the Polish nation."

Some said that the government and the ruling party might be about to obtain a military wing.

"Minister Macierewicz is creating his own private army," Katarzyna Lubnauer, deputy leader of the opposition Modern party, told reporters.

Critics point to a draft report published in April by the National Center for Strategic Studies (NCSS), a think-tank that has played a key role in the development of the government’s territorial defense program. The draft said that "equipped with machine-guns, a uniformed paramilitary formation can be an effective tool to prevent and deter anti-government activity."

On Wednesday, parliament rejected an opposition amendment that would have prohibited the paramilitary units from being used against Polish citizens. However, both the NCSS and Law and Justice have disavowed any suggestion that the units could be used to intimidate the government’s opponents.

A force apart

Concerns have also been raised about the cost and viability of the project.

The project will cost 3.6 billion zlotys (over €800 million) between 2016 and 2019. The problem, say opponents, is that a well-equipped and highly-trained new force of tens of thousands of new soldiers would cost much more, while any program that sticks to the government’s projections is likely to result in badly-trained and poorly-equipped units contributing little to Poland’s defense.

“The majority of NATO countries are investing in upgrading the potential of operational forces, not in developing territorial defense,” said Bogdan Klich, a former defense minister under the previous Civic Platform party government. “The priority of investments should be to acquire new equipment for modern warfare.”

Even some of those not opposed to the project think it should eventually be brought under the same structure as the rest of the military.

“It might be that it is easier for the new force to be established under the direct supervision of the Ministry of National Defense,” said General Pacek. “But I would hope and expect that once it is created and operational, it would be integrated into the armed forces command structure.”