Polish conservatives boycott IKEA after advertising pulled from TV station over anti-immigrant remarks

Jan 4, 2024 | Business, Media

Prominent conservative figures in Poland have launched a boycott of IKEA after the Swedish furniture giant withdrew advertising from a TV station that has recently aired controversial remarks opposing the EU’s proposed migration pact.

Earlier this week, one commentator on TV Republika, Jan Pietrzak, suggested that immigrants relocated by the EU to Poland could be sent to Auschwitz and other former Nazi-German camps.

That was followed on Wednesday by another of the station’s commentators, Marek Król, suggesting that migrants relocated to Poland “should be microchipped, just like dogs are” or, to save money, instead have “numbers tattooed on their hand and then they’ll be easy to find”.

TV Republika’s programme director, Michał Rachoń, subsequently issued a statement saying that the station “deeply disagrees with Marek Król’s statement” and opposes “the dehumanisation of people”. The broadcaster has, however, defended Pietrzak from criticism.

After Pietrzak’s comments were made but before Król’s, a social media user noted that IKEA advertising was appearing on TV Republika’s YouTube channel. She asked the firm why it was “sponsoring a station promoting homophobia, racism and xenophobia”.

In response, IKEA’s Polish branch thanked her for drawing their attention to the issue, which they said they were not aware of because advertising placement was handled by a third-party media house and TV Republika had only recently been added to the package.

“From tomorrow there will be no more advertisements on TV Republika,” wrote IKEA on Wednesday.

Another firm whose adverts had previously appeared in TV Republika broadcasts, mBank, also issued a statement yesterday saying that “we do not support the activities of this station, which is why we have stopped broadcasting adverts [on it]”.

In response, TV Republika’s boss, Tomasz Sakiewicz, announced a campaign to boycott IKEA. It was quickly joined by figures from other conservative media outlets, including Cezary Krysztopa, editor-in-chief of Tygodnik Solidarności, and Rafał Ziemkiewicz of Do Rzeczy.

Meanwhile, some figures from Law and Justice (PiS), the national-conservative party that ruled Poland until last month but is now in opposition, also joined the campaign against IKEA.

“We won’t buy anything from you anymore,” tweeted Beata Mazurek, a PiS MEP and the party’s former spokeswoman.

A number of figures, including PiS deputy leader Antoni Macierewicz, also drew attention to the fact that IKEA recently offered to help the new government with its migration policy.

IKEA has already been the target of anger from Polish conservatives over its decision in 2019 to fire an employee in Poland for posting homophobic remarks on the company’s internal messaging system, including quoting biblical passages suggesting that gay people deserve to be killed.

The justice minister in the PiS government, Zbigniew Ziobro, personally intervened in the case, calling IKEA’s decision “absolutely scandalous”. In November, after a long-running legal battle, the Swedish firm was ordered by a Polish court to reinstate the employee.

Since the new government, led by Donald Tusk, took over public media last month and removed PiS-appointed figures, TV Republika has seen its audience expand rapidly as many former state TV presenters and viewers migrated to the conservation station.

The broadcaster again drew controversy today after a far-right MP, Marek Jakubiak, likened relocated migrants to “unwanted waste” during an interview with the station and said they would turn “Poland into a garbage dump”.


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