Hungary/Poland – The recent European migration agreement is clearly not going down well in Warsaw and Budapest. Whereas the two governments have been at odds over the war in Ukraine since the beginning of last year, they have again found common ground for joint action in the European Union on the issue of illegal immigration. This was made clear at the V4 summit in Bratislava on June 26, and even more so at the Brussels summit on June 29–30.
In a move that will remind some of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain in the European Economic Community of the 1980s, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki blocked the adoption of joint conclusions by the EU-27 heads of member states and governments at the European Council. The two Central European PMs claimed they wanted to ensure that, in the future, the EU member states will continue to be required to vote unanimously on migration issues, meaning that a single country should be able to block decisions.
This is how Balász Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister’s political director, summed up the situation on Thursday night: “Discussion over: no endorsement for the bad Migration Pact.
Heavy fight against the pro-migration forces in Brussels! ”
Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki used the example of the indescribable chaos reigning in France following the shooting by a policeman of a 17-year-old youth of Algerian descent to justify his rejection of non-European immigration:
“Stores looted, police cars set on fire, barricades in the streets – that’s what’s happening right now in central Paris and many other French cities.
We don’t want such scenes on the streets of Poland. We don’t want scenes such as this in any European city.
That’s why we will defend the conclusions of the 2018 European Council: we will defend the principle of voluntary admission of migrants. Stop illegal migration. Safety first. ”
A few hours later, Morawiecki released a video showing images filmed in France and Poland over the previous few days to demonstrate the difference between a country with high levels of non-European immigration and one that has remained more culturally homogeneous and European.
Nasz plan to Europa Bezpiecznych Granic – bezpieczeństwo i porządek publiczny – to są wartości, od których wszystko inne się zaczyna! pic.twitter.com/9anvfDU11d
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) June 30, 2023
The Polish government has decided to hold a referendum on the subject of the EU Migrant Pact and its principle of “compulsory solidarity”. PM Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Monday, July 3 that this referendum would take place at the same time as the Polish parliamentary elections in the autumn.
After being criticized for its apparent doublespeak by its rivals on both the left (Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform) and the right (Konfederacja), the ruling Law and Justice party has seemingly decided to abandon a draft decree that was intended to facilitate the distribution of work visas to citizens of numerous countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. With just a few months to go before the elections, we will have to wait and see whether this is an electioneering tactic or a genuine change of direction after years of exponentially increasing labour immigration.
