Main opposition parties reject PM’s invitation to discuss EU migration pact

Poland’s largest opposition parties today rejected an invitation from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to discuss the government’s negative stance towards the EU’s planned migration pact. The meeting went ahead anyway, with empty chairs left to represent the missing parties.

Morawiecki called the meeting yesterday and urged all parliamentary groups to attend. His government has been vehemently opposed to the EU’s plans, which it describes as the “forced relocation of immigrants” between member states. The European Commission rejects that characterisation.

However, while Morawiecki’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party attended today’s meeting, only two small opposition groups did so: the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), which has 19 MPs in the 460-seat Sejm, and the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), which has nine MPs.

The two largest opposition groups – the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), which has 126 MPs, and The Left (Lewica), which has 43 – refused to attend, as did another small centrist group, Poland 2050 (Polska 2050).

PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek praised the two opposition parties that did attend, contrasting their stance to that of KO, whose leader, Donald Tusk, has recently criticised the government’s migration policies.

“It is very good that politicians came to this meeting with their own proposals, because that is what democracy is about,” Bochenek told Polskie Radio. “Parliamantarism is about having a substantive discussion, not just throwing around some false figures and invectives, as Donald Tusk does.”

The head of KO’s parliamentary caucus, Borys Budka, however, called Morawiecki’s meeting a “political show” intended to distract attention from the hypocrisy highlighted by Tusk, who has noted that PiS rejects the transfer of migrants within the EU but has itself overseen mass migration into Poland.

Budka also accused the government of “lying” about the EU’s migration pact, which he notes Poland could actually financially benefit from because it has taken in so many Ukrainian refugees.

The head of The Left’s caucus, Krzysztof Gawkowski, likewise accused PiS of “bringing up a topic that basically does not exist” in order to distract from its failure to fight inflation and secure frozen EU funds by making “refugees the main topic of the election campaign”.

Yesterday also saw a clash between the Polish government – whose spokesman called the EU’s plan “forced relocation with financial penalties for countries that do not agree” – and EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, who noted that there is no mandatory relocation and that Poland could benefit from the scheme.

PiS has noted, however, that whether a country is exempted from receiving relocated migrants or paying €20,000 for each one it refuses is decided by the European Commission, which it claims is hostile towards Poland under the current government.

Meanwhile, one of the two parties that did attend Morawiecki’s meeting, Confederation, presented a 12-point plan to reduce the impact of immigration on Poland. Its proposals included banning immigrants from receiving benefits, “outlawing Sharia”, and encouraging Poles abroad to return to Poland.

The leader of PSL, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, likewise told broadcaster Polsat that he was attending the meeting to “present our migration programme, what to do to increase the number of Poles, and not to make use of workers from Muslim countries”.

Main image credit: PremierRP/Twitter

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.