The conservative opposition party PiS has decided not to support Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s new migration strategy, which includes a temporary curb on asylum rights after it was condemned by President Andrzej Duda.
A day after the first anniversary of the parliamentary elections that saw PiS (ECR) lose power in Poland to Donald Tusk’s broad coalition of pro-EU parties (EPP/S&D/Renew), Duda used his constitutional right to address parliament, to sum up the new government’s record.
He praised Tusk’s (PO, EPP) cabinet for continuing some of the policies initiated by the PiS, including a tougher approach to migration pressure on Poland’s eastern border.
“I am glad that the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the political camp in power have finally joined the defenders of the border,” he said, recalling that most of the current ruling majority previously voted against a barrier on the border with Belarus.
On the other hand, he criticised the new migration strategy adopted by the government the day before, in particular the changes to asylum rights, which he described as a “horrible mistake.”
The proposal “will not serve to protect the border and avoid illegal migration” but “will prevent representatives of the Belarusian opposition from seeking asylum in Poland,” Duda warned.
“Many people harassed in Belarus will not be able to seek refuge in Poland,” he added, as quoted by TVP Info public broadcaster.
Duda, a former PiS member who will complete his second term in office in 2025, previously had strained relations with Tusk’s government, with both leaders repeatedly criticising each other’s actions.
Responding to the president’s speech, Tusk said that Duda “started [his first term in 2015] as PiS’ president and ends [his period in power] as PiS’ president.”
He explained that asylum rights would not be completely abolished, but only the reception and processing of applications by illegal migrants from the Polish-Belarusian border would be temporarily halted.
Referring to Duda’s argument, he said there had not been a single case of Belarusian opposition members trying to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally “in groups organised by [Alexander] Lukashenko’s regime.”
“Please do not be angry, Mr President, but nothing more stupid could have been said,” he told Duda.
He went on to say that what was happening on the Polish-Belarusian border was a situation in which Belarusian services and human smugglers brought groups to Moscow and Minsk and then to the Polish border, adding that these schemes were “sometimes prepared for months”.
Tusk arm-in-arm with the far right
To change the asylum rules, Tusk’s government would need the support of a parliamentary majority. According to the Polish constitution, “foreigners shall have a right of asylum in the Republic of Poland in accordance with principles specified by statute.” Thus, any change would require the regular legislative route.
Two laws are to be passed: one on border protection and the other on migrants.
The ruling coalition is divided over Tusk’s proposal. While it was adopted at the government meeting on Tuesday, ministers from the Left (S&D) voted against it.
Tusk’s other coalition partner, Poland 2050 (Renew), approved the new migration strategy but on the condition that social consultations be held.
PiS did not initially reject Tusk’s plan, although former defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak doubted whether it could be legally implemented and would prove effective.
Still, after Duda’s speech, PiS lawmakers told Money.pl news outlet that “Tusk has his own coalition, and he should seek a majority there.”
However, Tusk may find an unlikely ally in the far-right Confederation Party (PfE/ESN), which, like the other parties in its European faction, favours a strict immigration policy.
Suspending processing of asylum applications is “a very good idea that should be urgently adopted by the parliament,” Confederation co-leader and deputy parliamentary speaker Krzysztof Bosak wrote on X.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
