If the opposition were in power, Poland would have borders “like Swiss cheese” that would allow “hundreds of thousands” of migrants to cross, said the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, during a visit today to view construction of the new wall his government is building on the border with Belarus.
Amid continued concern over a possible Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, Morawiecki also hailed the fact that there had been an “awakening” of Western leaders to the importance of bolstering Poland’s borders, which are also the eastern frontier of the European Union and NATO.
📸 Wizyta premiera @MorawieckiM na terenie budowy zapory na polsko-białoruskiej granicy Unii Europejskiej. pic.twitter.com/Y8VPTjSES8
— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) February 16, 2022
“Poland’s borders are sacred” and have been “sanctified by the blood” of past generations who defended them, said Morawiecki in Kuźnica, a town near the border with Belarus, during a visit this morning.
He praised the planned 186-kilometre-long barrier, which will be 5.5 metres high and topped with razor wire. Its construction was launched by the government in response to last year’s surge in crossings from Belarus by tens of thousands of people, mainly from the Middle East.
“Those who cannot defend their borders run great risks, are not respected by others, and show their weakness,” said the prime minister, speaking alongside deputy interior minister Maciej Wąsik, who noted that the first spans of the wall had now been put in place.
Last year, Poland recorded 39,700 attempts to illegally cross from Belarus in a wave of migration that was facilitated by the Belarusian authorities.
“Today we see that that attack was part of a large, planned operation, part of a hybrid attack, part of the operational plan developed in the Kremlin and Minsk,” said Morawiecki on Wednesday.
The Polish government has from the start warned that the migration wave was part of a “hybrid attack” by Belarus with Kremlin backing. In November, Morawiecki met with nearly a dozen European leaders to warn about the “evil threatening Europe” from the east and to call for solidarity.
Speaking today, Morawiecki hailed the fact that an “awakening has taken place” among those leaders. “It is good that today everyone in the West can see that by protecting the Polish-Belarusian border, we are also protecting NATO’s eastern flank,” he said.
Turning to the opposition, Morawiecki argued that under the leadership of Donald Tusk or Szymon Hołownia – who head the two opposition parties, Civic Platform (PO) and Poland 2050 (Polska 2050), that are most popular in the polls – the border “would be like Swiss cheese”.
“Hundreds of thousands of migrants would pass through it,” he said, quoted by Wirtualna Polska. “Not so long ago, some people made fun of the fact that we want to protect this border,” he added.
The government’s plans to build a €350 million “impenetrable” wall have been criticised by parts of the opposition. In October, Tusk declared that the project was an “emotional spectacle” rather than a genuine attempt to protect the border. He also criticised the lack of oversight on spending.
Activists and academics have raised concern about the environmental impact that the wall will have on one of Poland’s – and Europe’s – most important natural areas.
At the start of February, more than 700 scientists issued an appeal to the EU to stop the project, warning of its “devastating” impact on the area’s valuable and delicate ecosystem.
Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
