In a press conference, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced his intention to establish a deportation service if his party wins the next elections. After leaving Law and Justice (PiS) last July to create his own party, Rozw\u00f3j Plus (Development Plus), Morawiecki is trying to position it between PiS and the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. However, far-right and xenophobic rhetoric in Poland is on the rise, and the former PiS prime minister attempts to turn towards populism, using the ideal ground of anti-migration.<\/p>\n
On 18 August, while presenting Rozw\u00f3j Plus\u2019 proposals regarding migration, he informed journalists that he plans to implement a deportation service alongside the launch of individual accounts containing information about migrants. Additionally, he intends to create an alert system that would automatically initiate deportation procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to stay here, you have to assimilate with the Poles and with Poland. Not multiculturalism. Multikulti, as Angela Merkel used to say. (\u2026) Total, brutal assimilation. There is no multiculturalism,\u201d warned Mateusz Morawiecki.<\/p>\n
He stated that workers for the deportation service will wear uniforms and that the service will be clearly marked to enhance security on Polish streets. Similar to the American ICE, it will use individual immigrant accounts to provide information on residency rights, employment, and contributions. Morawiecki also proposed a migrant alert system that would trigger automatic deportation proceedings upon the identification of a legal violation.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Rozw\u00f3j Plus suggests appointing a minister for migration and assimilation, limiting work visas for non-EU citizens to 35,000-50,000 per year, and temporarily suspending Poland\u2019s participation in the Schengen Area.<\/p>\n
However, while Morawiecki served as Prime Minister between December 2017 and December 2023, had all the power to establish strict rules against migration. During his period, PiS had practically the power to introduce any new law. Its government committed breaches of the rule of law on several occasions, reducing judicial independence and limiting press freedom, among other authoritarian acts. Of course, the Morawiecki government had a clear anti-migration stance but never attempted to introduce such services. <\/p>\n
\u201cMorawiecki announces the establishment of a deportation service. When he was in power, he did nothing. The border with Belarus was leaking like a sieve; Polish visas were being handed out without any checks. They couldn\u2019t even deport those who broke the law. We\u2019ve changed that, and Morawiecki\u2019s ideas are pure populism,\u201d Marcin Kierwi\u0144ski, Minister of Interior and Administration, posted on X today.<\/p>\n
In July, Morawiecki and several PiS lawmakers were forced to leave the party by the increasingly far-right, ultranationalist majority. At the beginning of August, the former prime minister announced that his association will become a political party on 15 October, the anniversary of the 2023 parliamentary elections. Politicians associated with Rozw\u00f3j Plus have already established a separate parliamentary club.<\/p>\n
In fact, Morawiecki prefers to use the anti-migration argument in order to search for voters in the vast, although murky, environment of the far-right, racist and nationalist environment in Poland. Anti-migration rhetoric, reinforced today by the joint deployment of harsh anti-Ukrainian propaganda and disinformation by PiS and the far-right, is an ideal field for searching for votes. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rozw\u00f3j Plus can hardly target the liberal and conservative constituency of the government coalition. Thus, it has to fight against PiS, the far-right Confederation and the right-wing extremist Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) for the same constituency.<\/p>\n
Thus, on Friday, 7 August, at a picnic in Jagodno, Morawiecki made the first friendly move towards S\u0142awomir Mentzen, the leader of the pro-Russian Confederation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that Mr S\u0142awomir Mentzen is absolutely part of the patriotic camp,\u201d said Morawiecki. \u201cI can imagine working with him, but I don\u2019t know if he would want to work with me. I\u2019m open to talks with the entire Confederation,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
It will not be the first time Mentzen has been flirted with by PiS politicians. Before the 2025 presidential election, the PiS candidate and today\u2019s President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, intensively flirted with Mentzen and his electorate.<\/p>\n
Because the PiS majority consistently espouses anti-EU positions alongside scepticism about aid to Ukraine, Morawiecki was perceived as a moderate conservative politician. However, his proposal for a deportation service together with his comments about the leader of Konfederacja clearly indicates that he has chosen the nationalist camp. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The emergence of Rozw\u00f3j Plus will certainly bring significant changes in Poland\u2019s politics. Different scenarios suggest it could represent a nightmare for Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, the leader of PiS, until the next general elections in November 2027. It will also affect the electoral results of Confederacja and may block another KO coalition government.<\/p>\n
Latest opinion polls include Morawiecki\u2019s party in their research. The findings are very interesting in case Rozw\u00f3j Plus runs the next elections alone. A survey conducted by Politico on 5 August indicates that only 6 parties will reach the 5% threshold and enter parliament. The ruling KO has 32% support, against 20% for PiS. Konfederacja 15%, the extremist KKP 10% and Lewica (The Left) 8%. In this poll, Morawiecki\u2019s party attracts 7% of voters\u2019 support. The impact of the new party is already visible. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a press conference, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced his intention to establish a deportation service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[13568,13569,13570,6001,7027,13571,13572,13573,64,1087,963,7307,419,13574,4923,9132,1091,13575,753,9,3334,6938,13576,421,13577,10646],"class_list":["post-21880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-tusk","tag-american-ice","tag-anti-migration","tag-assimilation","tag-authoritarianism","tag-civic-coalition","tag-confederation","tag-confederation-of-the-polish-crown","tag-deportation-service","tag-donald-tusk","tag-far-right","tag-jaroslaw-kaczynski","tag-judicial-independence","tag-karol-nawrocki","tag-kkp","tag-law-and-justice","tag-marcin-kierwinski","tag-mateusz-morawiecki","tag-multiculturalism","tag-pis","tag-poland","tag-populism","tag-press-freedom","tag-rozwoj-plus","tag-rule-of-law","tag-slawomir-mentzen","tag-xenophobia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}