EPA Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki earlier this month
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:43
Charlotte Waaijers
correspondent Central Europe
Charlotte Waaijers
correspondent Central Europe
In two months the Poles will go to the polls. But in addition to the composition of parliament, voters will probably also have to consider a series of other questions. Last week, the government announced that it also wanted to hold a referendum on election day, 15 October.
It was a slow denouement: first the announcement of a referendum without details, and every day since last Friday the unveiling of a new question on which the Poles can vote. For example, whether the wall between Poland and Belarus should remain, and whether state-owned companies may be sold. The Polish parliament will discuss the plan in the coming days.
That smearing is a deliberate strategy of ruling party PiS, thinks Radoslaw Markowsi, professor of political science at SWPS University in Warsaw. “An attempt to be as visible as possible in the media, with your own explanation.”
‘Sham referendum’
Markowski finds the choice of themes, in addition to the border wall and state-owned companies, also migration and the retirement age, striking. His research center has gauged what Poles consider to be the most important problems in their country at the moment, and the questions hardly match that.
Poles most often mention the war in Ukraine (34 percent), followed by the climate crisis (17 percent), economic crisis (9 percent) and poor health and care (7 percent).
The professor sees the fact that the government wants to present other themes to the population instead as an attempt by PiS to manipulate the public debate in the run-up to the elections. They promise to be exciting, so it’s a fight for every vote. “Apparently, their research shows that these are the topics that resonate with their own constituencies.”
Markowski therefore considers it a mock referendum, following the example of Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán. According to the Polish government, money will be saved by holding the referendum at the same time as the elections. But a serious referendum requires much more time, information and discussion, according to Markowski.
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It is clear that the referendum plan overlaps with the election campaign. “These politicians want to put you in danger,” PiS Prime Minister Morawiecki said in a video message to X last Friday. According to him, that danger is the migration deal that the EU concluded last June.
That deal includes agreements on the distribution of migrants entering Europe. Almost all Member States voted in favour. Only Hungary and Poland were against, not enough to stop the agreement.
“We see what is happening in the streets of Western Europe,” the prime minister said of images of burning cars, smashed windows and a black man licking a knife. “The referendum question will be: do you support the admission of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa under the mandatory redistribution mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy?”
By ‘European bureaucracy’ he also means opposition leader Donald Tusk. As a former prime minister of Poland, Tusk agreed to a European refugee redistribution plan during the 2015 migration crisis. Later, as EU president, he coordinated the migration deal with Turkey.
Score with migration
Although few Poles see migration as an important problem according to Markowski’s research (3 percent), it is a subject that parties can score with. A large majority of Poles are against the European redistribution plan. Poland is currently already hosting more than a million refugees from Ukraine, for which it receives far too little support from Europe, according to the government.
Tusk himself is now also doing his part. In a video message, he spoke of “shocking images of violent riots in France” and warned that the Polish government is actually admitting more citizens from, for example, the Middle East, Asia and Nigeria, in an attempt to recruit workers. “Poland must regain control of their land and borders.”
This apparent turn drew him criticism from the left corner. He says that Tusk is trying to outbid the far right: not only PiS, but also the far-right Konfederacja, which is currently climbing in the polls.
Too late
According to Euro Commissioner Ylva Johansson, the Polish government is distorting reality with the referendum. In an interview with news site Onet, she says that the agreement makes an exception for countries such as Poland, because the country already receives so many refugees. Poland would benefit from the deal.
It remains to be seen what Poland will ultimately gain from a referendum. They can no longer stop the European migration plan; that is already in the hands of the European Parliament.
2023-08-16 05:43:42
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