Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki yesterday revealed the issue of the third referendum he wants to be held alongside the October 15 parliamentary elections. “Do you support the admission of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa under the forced relocation mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy?” The other questions, announced in recent days, relate to the privatization of public companies and raising the retirement age, which the current executive has lowered to 60 for women and 65 for men. A fourth issue will be released this Monday, according to the Polish news agency PAP.
The idea of the Nationalists of Law and Justice (PiS, in Polish acronym) is to present the main opponent – the Civic Platform of the former Prime Minister and former President of the European Council, Donald Tusk – as a threat to the interests of the Poles. This is because the pro-European Union party raised the retirement age when it was in government between 2007 and 2015, defended some privatizations (critics recall PiS also carried out some disastrous ones) and showed a willingness to take in thousands of migrants before they left the EU. country. power.
The questions were revealed by Morawiecki in videos on Twitter (now X). On the issue of immigration, which lasts less than two minutes, footage appears of Tusk – presented as “the biggest threat to Poland’s security” by PiS leader, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. “We will not allow Tusk, an envoy of the Brussels elites, to destroy security in Poland”adds the current deputy prime minister, who is seen as the true leader of the country.
The video also features images of burning cars and other street violence, as well as a black man aggressively licking a knife. “We all see what is happening in the streets of Western Europe: rape, murder, arson, destruction of streets, terror neighborhoods… Do you want this to happen in Poland too? Do you want to stop being in charge of your own country?” asks Kaczynski. PiS is particularly critical of immigration from the Middle East and Africa, but has opened the door for thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war.
PiS’s idea is to appeal to emotion to mobilize its conservative voters, guaranteeing an unprecedented third consecutive term. The ruling party leads the polls, with between 33% and 36% of the vote, but is not guaranteed a sufficient majority to govern. The Civic Platform, one of four parties in the Civic Coalition, comes in with 26 to 32%, depending on the polls.
Alongside Tusk, PiS has attempted to attack Germany, with Kaczynski suggesting at a meeting on Friday that Berlin wanted to interfere in the campaign. At stake are statements by the leader of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, who in an interview accused PiS of violating the rule of law and freedom of the press, describing the Polish party – as well as others – as “our enemies ” considers. According to analysts quoted by AFP, between 30% and 40% of Poles do not trust Germany – are even hostile.
Source: DN
