Poland’s ruling social gathering needs to ask voters in a referendum whether or not they assist accepting “hundreds of unlawful immigrants from the Center East and Africa” as a part of a European Union relocation plan.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki introduced the referendum query in a video revealed on social media on Sunday.
It comes as his conservative Legislation and Justice social gathering bids to stave off a problem from the opposition in a parliamentary election in October and suggests it’s looking for to make use of migration in its marketing campaign – a tactic that helped it take energy in 2015.
Poland hosts greater than one million Ukrainian refugees, who’re primarily white and Christian, however officers have lengthy made clear that they take into account Muslims and others from completely different cultures to be a risk to the nation’s cultural id and safety.
EU inside ministers in June endorsed a plan to share out accountability for migrants coming into Europe with out authorisation, the foundation of one of many bloc’s longest-running political crises.
The Polish authorities needs to carry the referendum alongside the parliamentary election, scheduled for 15 October.
Mr Morawiecki mentioned the query will say: “Do you assist the admission of hundreds of unlawful immigrants from the Center East and Africa beneath the pressured relocation mechanism imposed by the European forms?”
The video saying the query contains scenes of burning automobiles and different avenue violence in Western Europe. A black man licks an enormous knife in obvious anticipation of committing against the law.
Get together chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski then says: “Would you like this to occur in Poland as effectively? Do you wish to stop being masters of your individual nation?”
A steel wall on the border between Poland and Belarus, in Jurowlany. Pic: AP
Leaders have introduced two different questions in latest days on privatising state-owned enterprises and assist elevating the retirement age.
The questions are introduced in a method clearly meant to point out opposition social gathering Civic Platform as a risk to the pursuits of Poles.
The professional-EU social gathering, which ruled from 2007 to 2015, raised the retirement age throughout its time in energy and signalled a willingness to just accept a number of thousand refugees earlier than it misplaced energy.
Poland grew to become frontline state two years in the past
Europe’s asylum system has been beneath scrutiny after over one million folks entered the bloc – most of them fleeing battle in Syria – and overwhelming reception capacities in Greece and Italy.
The 27 EU nations have bickered ever since over which nations ought to take accountability for folks arriving with out authorisation.
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Initially Poland was neither an entry nation nor a vacation spot nation for migrants and refugees.
It grew to become a frontline state two years in the past when migrants started crossing from Belarus, one thing European authorities view as an effort by the Russian ally to generate turmoil in Poland and different European nations.
Poland responded by constructing a big wall on its border. It has lately elevated its army presence on the border, fearing a rise in migration and different potential instability.