Kaczynski accuses Germans of planting migrants in Poland

WARSAW

The leader of Poland’s main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczynski, accused Germany on Saturday of pushing illegal migrants over the Polish border.

“The Germans believe that they can do whatever they want. They are entering our territories, at the moment German police cars can be seen far from the western border,” he said on the border bridge in Slubice in western Poland.

"Everything must be done to change this situation," he said. "In Germany, we are still dealing with anti-Polish racism."

In the September 2023 election for parliament, Kaczynski used a lot of anti-German rhetoric, although his party lost to the current ruling coalition. A presidential election is scheduled for May 18, and a possible second round is to take place June 1.

Since 2021, migration has been a hot topic in Poland, as elsewhere in Europe. Russia and Belarus have been accused of sending migrants from the Middle East and Africa into Poland illegally, and Polish authorities have been accused of pushing them back over the border, without offering them a chance to claim asylum in the EU. The pushbacks have continued even after the new ruling coalition government came to power.

Premier Donald Tusk, aware of popular support for tighter border controls and increased security on the Belarus border, has said he would not accept the EU’s migrant relocation plans and unveiled plans to militarize the eastern border, suspend asylum applications and continue pushbacks.

There have been reports that since former Chancellor Scholz in the run-up to German elections last year proposed ending the Schengen agreement -- allowing people within the EU to move freely from one country to another -- Germany has pushed irregular migrants back into Poland.