After attending the latest in a series of summits of right-wing and far-right European leaders, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, says they “have shown that there is a different future for Europe based on sovereign states, not on any centralised structure”.
Among those to take part in the two-day gathering in Madrid – which took place under the slogan “Defend Europe” – were France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Santiago Abascal, leader of the Spanish Vox party, which was hosting the event.
The leaders condemned the policies of the European Union in a number of areas and pledged to work together more closely in the European Parliament.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which takes a strongly anti-Russian line, has faced criticism for building relations with leaders sympathetic towards Russia, particularly amid the current situation around Ukraine.
Earlier this week, opposition leader Donald Tusk appealed to Morawiecki not to join the “anti-Ukrainian and pro-Putin” politicians in Madrid. In response, Morawiecki called on Tusk to resign as president of the European People’s Party due to its role in allowing the development of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
After attending the summit in Madrid, Morawiecki announced that in the “final declaration adopted at today’s meeting, Russia’s actions were unequivocally condemned”, reports news website Interia.
The Polish Press Agency (PAP) quotes the declaration as saying that “Russian military operations on the eastern border of Europe have led us to the brink of war” and calling for “solidarity, determination and defence cooperation in the face of such threats”.
However, at the time of writing, no official version of the declaration has been released. Meanwhile, a copy of the document posted on Le Pen’s website – which includes Morawiecki’s name underneath it – makes no mention of Russia at all.
According to two French journalists – Anne Renaut of AFP and Alain Guillemoles of La Croix – Le Pen had refused to sign the version of the declaration that included a paragraph on Russia.
En revanche la déclaration commune en espagnol diffusée par le parti Vox a conservé le paragraphe sur l’Ukraine, contesté par la candidate française, réputée proche de Moscou, mais soutenu par la Pologne et la Hongrie, anciens pays communistes 2/
— Anne Renaut (@AnneRenaut) January 29, 2022
Elsewhere in their joint statement, the right-wing leaders pledged to “protect Europe from imposed ideologies and the anti-democratic drift which is leading to its downfall”
They criticised the European Union’s “disastrous” migration policies and promised to “defend Europe against external and internal threats”. There was also condemnation of “the politically motivated attacks by Brussels against Poland and Hungary” and a pledge to “defend the primacy of national constitutions over European law”.
The participants – whose parties are currently spread across different European groupings – also declared that they would seek to “join forces on the abovementioned issue in the European Parliament”.
Nous aimons l'Europe parce que nous aimons nos Nations. Et nous défendrons l'Europe parce que nous défendons nos Nations !
À #Madrid, avec les chefs des partis patriotes, nous avons défini notre vision commune de l’Europe, contre une UE à la dérive 👉🏻 https://t.co/AGhUG1DyH7 pic.twitter.com/cckxnQv85W
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) January 29, 2022
Speaking after the conclusion of the summit, Morawiecki said that it was “very good that we could be among our friends today and see that there is a different way of thinking about Europe”, reports Rzeczpospolita.
The prime minister acknowledged that some partners “look at Russia differently from us”, notes TVN24. But he added that, as “realists”, the Polish government’s aim is to try to help them understand the threat posed by Moscow, and the Madrid summit had shown that this policy “is already bearing fruit”.
Morawiecki also said that progress had been made in a number of other areas, including over energy prices. The joint statement included a passage pledging to “work for greater European energy capacity…[by] improving energy self-sufficiency”.
The meeting in Madrid comes less than two months after PiS hosted the same group of leaders in Warsaw, at which they pledged to “put a stop to the disturbing idea of creating a Europe governed by a self-appointed elite” and instead placed emphasis on the role of “free and equal nation states”.
The summits have marked a significant change in approach from PiS, which had previously ruled out working with Le Pen owing to her Russian sympathies. In 2019, PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said that Le Pen’s National Rally party is “obviously linked to Moscow and receives its support”.
However, as the Polish government has moved further into conflict with the European Union, it has increasingly sought allies among Eurosceptic parties. Although those efforts initially also included Italy’s Matteo Salvini, he and his Lega party have been absent from both the Warsaw and Madrid summits.
Main image credit: MLP_officiel/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.
