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Banners ares seen during an anti-government protest in Krakow, Poland
Poland’s PiS caught in cash for visas scandal
A month out from Poland’s parliamentary elections, the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) is facing a PR nightmare of their own making: the party may be anti-immigration, but it seems they aren’t anti-cash.
There is mounting evidence that several thousand visas were given to migrants from Africa and Asia in exchange for cash– a major scandal for an anti-immigration party.
The scandal was uncovered after other EU states noticed an influx of migrants entering the Schengen area with Polish visas. Seven people have been detained and the deputy foreign minister has been sacked.
PiS is looking to win its third straight general election next month, running on a platform that highlights the party’s success in stemming immigration from Muslim-majority countries and managing ongoing tensions along the Belarusian border.
But PiS is neck and neck with the liberal opposition– former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) – and facing a right flank challenge from the libertarian-nationalist Confederation Party. Right now it’s anyone's game, and could result in no government being formed, prompting a repeat election in early 2024.
With swing voters likely to determine the outcome of a tight election, getting caught hawking visas while running on an anti-immigrant platform could blow up for the PiS when Poles hit the polls next month.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki
Poland’s PM puts Middle East migrants on the ballot
Case in point: Aware that his Law and Justice Party faces a stiff challenge this fall from the opposition Civic Platform, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced plans on Sunday to add the following question to the national election ballot for October 15:
“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?”
If the wording of that question doesn’t make clear which side the prime minister is on, he accompanied the announcement on social media with a video image of a Black man licking a knife, followed by the question, “Do you want to cease being masters of your own country?”
During the height of Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015-2016, the governing Law and Justice Party managed to close Poland’s borders to migration from Africa and the Middle East, though it has welcomed more than three million Ukrainians who have fled Russia’s invasion of their country. More than a million Ukrainians are still there.
Former prime minister Donald Tusk, now leader of the more immigration-friendly opposition, says the referendum idea shows the governing party is running scared and needs an election gimmick to win.