Polish ruling party submits bill to allow EU migration referendum on election day

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has submitted legislation that would allow it to call a referendum on the EU’s proposed migration pact – which the Polish government strongly opposes – on the same day as the parliamentary election this autumn.

PiS argues that holding the two votes simultaneously will be more cost-effective. But opponents have accused it of seeking to exploit the issue to boost turnout from its supporters on election day.

Last month, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński announced that his party would organise a national referendum on the migration pact, despite the fact that the plan had already been approved by EU member states, with only Poland and Hungary opposed.

Subsequently, a number of figures from the ruling camp suggested that holding the referendum on election day would be a good idea. The election has not yet been called, meaning the date is not yet known, but it will take place in either October or November this year.

“We are planning to hold them [the election and the referendum] at the same time, so that the costs will be lower,” said PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki today, quoted by news service 300Polityka.

However, Poland has never held elections and a referendum on the same day, and there are slightly different rules in place for the two different types of vote. PiS has therefore now submitted a bill to parliament that would unify those rules.

Currently, for example, the electoral code stipulates that voting in elections runs from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. whereas the law on referendums requires that they take place between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. PiS’s new bill would change referendum voting hours to match those of elections.

It would also ensure that referendums have the same rules on voting districts, electoral commissions, postal-voting notifications, and the submission of results from votes cast abroad, reports broadcaster TVN24.

Some commentators have accused PiS of hypocrisy, noting that it recently made the exact opposite argument to justify delaying this year’s local elections until 2024 because it said they would clash with the parliamentary elections

However, Morawiecki today brushed off such criticism, saying that local elections are complex votes for various levels of administration whereas a referendum asks a simple yes-or-no question.

The prime minister added that the current plan is to “make [the referendum] as simple as possible” by asking just “one question about illegal immigration to Poland, this great problem that the whole of Western Europe is now facing”.

EU officials have, however, accused PiS of misrepresenting the EU’s planned migration pact. They note that no countries would be forced to receive relocated migrants and that Poland itself would not have to pay “solidarity payments” to countries that house them because it has taken in so many Ukrainian refugees.

PiS has responded by noting that any decision to exempt Poland from solidarity payments would be made by the European Commission, which it accuses of victimising Poland under its current government.

PiS also says that it generally opposes the principle of relocating illegal immigrants within the bloc. Morawiecki has instead proposed that the EU adopt a five-point plan to better ensure that such migrants do not enter the EU in the first place.

Poland’s main opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), has, however, accused PiS of hypocrisy. It notes that the government wants to hold a referendum on the potential relocation of a few thousand migrants, despite during its time in power having allowed tens of thousands of migrants from Muslim countries to enter Poland.

Another opposition group, the centre-right Third Way coalition, has argued that a referendum is not necessary as it is clear that most Poles oppose the idea of relocation. Kaczyński simply wants to “mobilise his followers” by “scaring [them] with [the idea of] waves of refugees”, says one of its leaders, Szymon Hołownia.

In a poll by IBRiS published today by the Rzeczpospolita daily, Poles were evenly split on the idea of holding a referendum on the EU’s migration pact, with 50.3% in favour and 47% opposed.

Meanwhile, the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, which is currently running third in polls and could decide whether PiS or the opposition form a government after the elections, has called for the referendum to be broader than just asking about the EU migration pact.

One of its leaders, Krzysztof Bosak, today suggested that voters should also be asked, for example, if they support the government’s policies of allowing in large numbers of immigrants from Muslim countries and whether immigrants should be allowed to receive state benefits and pensions.

Main image credit: Daniel Gnap/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles

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.