Rage against refugees, who supposedly spread infectious diseases and are all potential terrorists and rapists, has until now been a trademark of the ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party around Jaroslav Kaczynski. The populist campaign against refugees and immigrants from Africa and the Middle East was instrumental in the party’s (PiS) double victory in the 2015 parliamentary and presidential elections.

The prime minister Donald Tuskformer president of the European Council (2007-2014), has now surprised both his ultra-conservative opponents and his liberal supporters. On the first anniversary of the election victory of his center-left coalition, the Polish prime minister presented a new immigration policy strategy at a conference of the Citizens’ Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) party. “The state must regain full control over who enters and leaves Poland,” said Donald Tusk. The new strategy is entitled: “Reclaim control, guarantee security”.

PiS seeks a referendum on the Migration Pact

According to the Polish prime minister, one element of the strategy should be the “temporary suspension of the right to asylum”. Donald Tusk has said he intends to campaign for this proposal across Europe. However, he is categorical regarding the EU Migration and Asylum Pact: “We will not respect, nor will we apply European principles, as long as we are sure that our security is affected.”

With the new immigration policy, Donald Tusk wants to hurt Kaczynski’s ultra-conservatives, while the Law and Justice party plans to collect 500,000 signatures to hold a referendum in Poland on the EU’s European Pact on Migration and Asylum. With the result of the referendum, Kaczynski hopes that he will be able to defeat his opponent Donald Tusk and appoint, ahead of presidential elections in the summer, the successor of President Andrzej Duda, whose term ends in August 2025.

Polish Prime Minister Tusk attacks Kaczynski by playing the immigration card, which until now has been a kind of super-weapon of the ultra-conservatives to influence Polish public opinion. Donald Tusk no longer misses an opportunity to criticize PiS’s inconsistent foreign policy, which on the one hand has demonized refugees but on the other has allegedly granted an excessive number of work visas to foreigners, some of whom are said to have paid bribes to obtain the coveted document. Indicative that in the period 2018-2023, Polish consulates issued 3.8 million work visas, a number that constitutes a European record.

The “German finger”

In order to appoint that successor in the presidential palace in Warsaw, the Polish prime minister seems ready to make painful compromises. Let’s not forget that the new Polish head of state will play a decisive role in the success or failure of the Tusk government. It is worth noting that Andrzej Duda, who belongs to the Law and Justice party, has vetoed almost all the reform efforts of the new government.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is trying to rally the country’s ultraconservative forces as much as he can, is well aware of the decisive importance of the presidential election. In his speech at the PiS conference on Saturday, he harshly criticized the government. As in the 2023 election campaign, the populist leader accused the prime minister of alleged “dark” links to Germany. According to the ultraconservative leader, the prime minister, who won the election only thanks to German support, has frozen the demand for war reparations and is implementing a German agenda.

Duda’s succession race will be decided as everything shows in the thread. The latest opinion polls currently show a tie between the Law and Justice and Citizens’ Platform parties. At the big rally in Warsaw two weeks before parliamentary elections at the end of 2023, Donald Tusk solemnly made a promise: “I promise you that we will win, settle accounts with the previous government, correct mistakes and promote national reconciliation.” , he underlined in front of a million supporters. “He only fulfilled the first promise,” commented journalist Katazina Sandvo in the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

Editor: Stefanos Georgakopoulos