Poland’s migration referendum about political narrative – not citizens, says opposition MP – EURACTIV.com
The migration referendum that will take place in October is fully political, and the government does not care about the Polish people’s minds, said opposition Civic Platform MP Michał Szczerba.
Earlier this summer, ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jarosław Kaczyński announced a referendum on accepting migrants under the EU proposed scheme. Later on, the government added three other questions.
“It is a political plebiscite. Little does PiS care about Polish people’s minds, it only focuses on building appropriate political narrative and concentrating on the topics it finds convenient,” Szczerba told EURACTIV.pl.
At the same time, he added that the ruling party diverts its attention from the problems that are really important for the Polish people, like high prices, corruption and the government’s anti-European attitude.
Ryszard Legutko, PiS MEP and co-leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, responded that the referendum concerns the problems that are crucial for the Polish people and any decisions that would be taken based on it may be reversed once the current opposition comes to power.
In July, the parliament adopted an amendment that allows national elections and referendums to be held on the same day. Consequently, the referendum will take place together with the parliamentary elections on 15 October.
The referendum will include four questions. The first one concerns “the support for the sale of state assets to foreign entities, which would lead to the loss of control by Polish people over strategic sectors of the economy”. The second relates to increasing the pension age to 67 for both men and women.
In the third question, voters will be asked whether they support dismantling the barrier at the Polish border with Belarus. The last question concerns the problem from which the discussion about the referendum has started: “accepting thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, in accordance with the forced relocation mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy.”
The EU Commission, as well as the Swedish presidency in the Council of the EU, repeated numerous times that the system proposed by the Commission and approved by the Council does not mean mandatory relocation of asylum-seekers but mandatory solidarity, under which each member state may choose whether it wants to contribute to managing migration by participating in relocations, helping financially or delivering operational support.
Poland and Hungary were the only countries that opposed the new migration and asylum scheme. Warsaw argued that financial contribution appears as a form of punishment for refusal to receive migrants.
From the beginning, the referendum was criticised by the opposition, especially for the wording of the questions, which suggested the answers correct for the government.
The ruling camp accuses the Civic Platform of wanting to privatise state-owned companies, increase the requirement age, accept thousands of illegal migrants and liquidate the barrier at the Belarusian border.
“They are not innocents that respect the matters that are important for Poles. They can open the borders (for migrants), dismantle the wall on the border, sell the state-owned assets,” Legutko told EURACTIV.pl.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
