Poland prefers to leave EU to host 'Refugees ... but the ogre is Hungary
gaceta.es
September 7th, 2017
Places to choose between continuing in the European Union and accepting Muslim immigrants or abandoning it and keeping the borders closed to Islam, a majority of Poles would settle for the latter.
It is the result of a survey conducted by the IBRiS agency for the Polityka newspaper, in which 51% of respondents said they would prefer to leave the EU if it was the only way to maintain their policy of not accepting Muslim immigrants.
Such a result would not be noticeable in many other Western European countries where euro-skeptic opinion has grownsignificantly in recent years and where politicians who propose a referendum similar to the British see their popularity increasing.
But in this case, it's a real surprise: Poland is enthusiastically pro-European .
All the countries of the former Soviet Bloc are, in fact, more than happy to belong to the European club, largely because, being 'poor relatives', they benefit from cohesion funds and partly because after half a century of imposed separation and communist regimes are wishing to integrate irrevocably into Europe and rub shoulders with their wealthy neighbors.
But in the Polish case this passion is even stronger, because of the traditional distrust towards a Russia that has occupied its territory too many times. That makes the country not only a Euro-enthusiast, but also a convinced member of the Atlantic Alliance , in which it sees its safeguard against the expansionistic whims of its powerful neighbor to the East.
According to a poll of the demo CBOS published in June, 88% of the Poles are in favor of the permanence of their country in the European Union, with only a 9% against.
That is what makes this survey of IBRiS paradoxical, but the confrontation, which seems to be becoming permanent, between the right-wing Justice and Peace (PiS) executive and his partners in Brussels on behalf of ...
A lot of things: judicial reform, the 'right' to abortion or the refusal to welcome the 'refugees' who, according to the European Commission, 'correspond' to them.
Poland is not progressive
It is often read in Western media that Poland has initiated an "anti-democratic drift . "
Comments like this tend to pour enthusiastic supporters of a Union in which we govern a Commission that we have not chosen and with a Parliament that can not propose laws, which is nonetheless funny. Actually, what they mean by that curious phrase is that Poland is not progressive .
And it is quite true. In the last elections to the Sejm, the parliament. something amazing happened: the left disappeared , a unique case in Europe. In the words of the monthly Jacobin Magazin, "there is not a single leftist deputy in Poland, no matter what definition of" left "is chosen.
There is no social democratic party , there is no radical left party, there is no 'green' party , there is hardly a socialliberal party. In the fifth largest country in the European Union, the left has simply vanished . "
The Government is not Eurosceptic
The party in power is not Eurosceptic at all; it is only that he has an idea of how the EU should be understood that is markedly different from that defended by the EU executive.
The PiS is determined to defend Polish sovereignty within the EU by its very nature, especially in the sphere of values and culture, in which it rejects what it regards as a liberal left-wing world-view within the Union which threatens their national identity.
On the other hand, PiS is increasingly suspicious of the Commission's efforts to turn the EU into a mega state, and is leading the opposition to this mode with its allies of the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic) to understand the European club.
What seems to indicate the survey with which we began this article, in sharp contrast to the Euro-enthusiasm displayed in the rest by citizenship and government, is that the latter may be broader than deep.
The two major objectives
Poland had two great motivations to seek entry into the European Union, an emotional and almost romantic one; and the other practical and crematístico.
The first was his reincorporation into 'free Europe' after half a century of communism under the tutelage of Moscow, symbolized by his access to the club of free and democratic nations .
The second is the urgent need to be part of a strong free-market block that guarantees economic growth.
But the first objective has already been achieved by far, Poland has left behind the communist era and the complexes associated with it and now, cooled the romantic impulse, begins to see that there are a few things that separate you from the heart of that Europe with which he dreamed for decades.
For example, the issue of refugees in particular and immigration in general. Being a country more of emigrants than of immigrants, the contrast could have remained hidden for many years if the recent refugee crisis had not broken out. Last May, a CBOS survey revealed that 70% of Poles oppose accepting refugees from Muslim countries, with only 25% in favor of doing so.
Poland is an overwhelmingly Catholic country with very little ethnic diversity that has not experienced the social upheavals associated with mass immigration and difficult to assimilate and which, having seen its results in the countries of the West, prefers to avoid them.
On the other hand, the economic incentive is not what it was . Neither Poland has at all the underdeveloped and underdeveloped economy of a few years ago, nor European aid is what it was. It is assumed that this budget year in Brussels, which runs until 2020, will be the last year in which Poland appears as a net recipient of aid.
All of which makes it foreseeable that, despite the current predominant opinion in the country, it is not at all unreasonable to foresee the growth of 'polexit' supporters , perhaps in an accelerated fashion, especially if relations with Brussels continue to be soured.
An additional reason to think is that the minority Euroscepticism is concentrated almost exclusively among the youngest - if the opposition to the EU is only 9% in the general population, it reaches 22% among Poles between 18 and 24 years, that did not live the communism and therefore do not understand to what comes alharacas.
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