Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has held talks with French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. The meeting comes amid heightened tension between Warsaw and Brussels, and was held despite the Polish ruling party previously ruling out the idea of working with Le Pen given her close ties to the Kremlin.
“Morawiecki and I share many points in common, including that of the defence of the sovereignty of European Nations,” tweeted Le Pen after the pair met. “This is why we have launched, with 14 other parties in Europe, a common text to defend the sovereignty of nations.”
The French politician also revealed that the two had “discussed in particular the unacceptable blackmail exercised by the European Commission against Poland, and I wanted to give him my support”.
🇫🇷🇵🇱 Avec @MorawieckiM, nous partageons de nombreux points communs, dont celui de la défense de la souveraineté des Nations européennes.
C’est pourquoi nous avons lancé, avec 14 autres partis en Europe, un texte commun pour défendre la souveraineté des Nations. #EUCO pic.twitter.com/QvRA2GIeGt
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) October 22, 2021
Morawiecki has since yesterday been in Brussels for a summit of the European Council. On the sidelines, he has held one-on-one meetings with other leaders, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s Pedro Sánchez.
The “diplomatic offensive” is designed as a response to criticism over the rule of law in Poland, which has threatened the disbursement of billions of euros in EU funds, notes Interia. Earlier this week, Morawiecki also spoke in the European Parliament to defend his government’s record.
This morning it emerged that the prime minister had also, unexpectedly, met with Le Pen, who holds no official position other than being a member of France’s parliament.
She is, however, the longstanding leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) and finished runner-up to Macron in the 2017 presidential election. She will stand for the presidency again next year.
This afternoon, Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller confirmed that the meeting between Morawiecki and Le Pen, which was not announced in advance, had taken place. “The prime minister meets with many political groups in Europe,” he said, quoted by TVN.
The talks, which took place at the offices of Poland’s representation to the European Union, had concerned “cooperation between various political circles in the European Parliament, as defined in the declaration of July this year”, said Müller.
In July, Le Pen and Kaczyński were among 15 European leaders to sign a declaration on “reforming Europe”. Other signatories included Salvini, Orbán, Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party, and Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy.
Poland's ruling party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński has signed a joint declaration on "the future of Europe" with other party leaders including Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán and Matteo Salvini.https://t.co/HyTnscNnDs
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 2, 2021
The recent warming of ties between Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and France’s RN have drawn particular attention because of its previous denials that it wanted to work with Le Pen.
PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said in 2017 that suggestions his party wanted to cooperate with Le Pen were “simply fraud and manipulation”. He added that “we have as much in common with Le Pen as with Putin”.
His remarks came after Le Pen had declared that, if she won the French presidency, she would “work with Kaczyński in dismantling the [European] Union”. Though PiS has often criticised – and clashed with – the EU, it denies claims that it wants to leave or damage the bloc.
I assume the idea on PiS's side here is to say "Look who is being friendly to us, Ursula. Now have a think about how you can stop that happening." But to anyone familiar with PiS's rhetoric and practice, it just seems like a natural meeting with a natural partner. https://t.co/s2fK53vcWu
— Ben Stanley (@BDStanley) October 22, 2021
In 2019, Kaczyński told Gazeta Polska that Le Pen’s party is “obviously linked to Moscow and receives its support”. He raised concern that RN’s “policies could be adjusted by the Kremlin if they became a strong force in the EU”.
That same year, Morawiecki himself said that, while PiS was willing to meet and work with Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini, who also has ties to Russia, it “rules out an alliance with any faction that had France’s National Rally as a member”.
Though rhetorically, ideologically and politically PiS shares much common ground with Salvini and Le Pen, as well as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, it holds a strongly anti-Russian line, in contrast to their warmer relations with the Kremlin.
Main image credit: Marine Le Pen/Twitter
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
