By Oyintari Ben
Poland may conduct a referendum on a European Union migrant agreement on the same day as elections scheduled for the autumn, a deputy minister said on Monday, highlighting the ruling nationalist party’s opposition to the EU accord in its campaign.
Each of the 27 members of the EU would be responsible for admitting a specific number of migrants under the agreement, which tries to resolve differences that stem from the 2015 migrant crisis, but might pay other governments roughly 20,000 euros per person if they choose not to welcome them.
The head of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczynski, announced on Thursday that Poland would hold a referendum on the agreement since it had already taken in 1.5–2 million Ukrainian refugees and that it would be unreasonable to demand that Warsaw pay for turning away additional migrants.
Poland and Hungary are two Eastern European Union nations that have previously refused to accept immigrants from the region’s predominantly Muslim Middle East and North Africa. Human rights organisations have accused PiS of inciting xenophobia, which it rejects.
When asked if the referendum could take place on the same day as the legislative election, which is scheduled for October or November, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski responded that it was feasible.
Because of the expenditures, he added, “These kinds of joint votes have already occurred in the past, and I think it would be a natural thing.”
According to a United Surveys poll released on Monday by the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper and RMF FM, although half of Poles supported a referendum, the other half were against the concept of coupling it with elections.
Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk stated at a rally in Poznan on Friday that the referendum idea indicated anxiety on the side of PiS due to public unhappiness with issues like inflation or the nation’s harsh immigration laws.
