Poland Doesn’t Want Pro-Europeans

Credit Image: © Str/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press

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Poland prevented Jared Taylor from entering Europe to speak at a patriotic conference in Estonia. Some might find this surprising because of Poland’s “right-wing” reputation. Some recent headlines:

• “Polish PM warns of ‘revolts’ if EU ignores nation-states”, Associated Press, March 20, 2023
• “Poland: Nazi symbol and calls to burn Jews on Independence Day”, i24, November 13, 2022
• “Is Poland becoming more authoritarian?”, EuroNews, September 12, 2022

Perhaps Poland is becoming more authoritarian, but in a way the media generally support. The country protects Europe’s borders, but against Americans who support Europe’s right to remain European – not against invaders.

Whether a country has a “right-wing” government doesn’t seem to mean it can defend its borders. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took power in Italy on a platform of immigration control. The English-language press greeted her victory with cries of horror, proclaiming it nothing less than a restoration of fascism.

• “It’s a Girl (Fascist)!”, The Intercept, September 26, 2022
• “The election of Italy’s fascist-adjacent Giorgia Meloni is a public reminder that women can be just as awful as men”, The Guardian, September 27, 2022
• “Italy’s Right Still Hasn’t Broken Its Ties To Fascism”, Jacobin, March 16, 2023

The world of media imagination — with “far-right” governments ensuring national survival — is attractive, but it’s only in the mind. In the real world, Italy faces the biggest surge in immigration since Angela Merkel practically invited in the entire Middle East. More than 45,000 illegals have arrived so far this year. Last month, the figure was reportedly 31,300, compared to 7,900 from January through April of 2022. Italy declared a state of emergency but that didn’t stop the flow.

Part of the reason is that NGOs promote migration, often accusing European countries of not doing enough to protect migrant armadas. Evidently, European navies are now supposed to protect invaders, not stop them. At least 28 migrants in March died after boats crossing from Tunisia sank. At least 64 died in April. This is what gets press coverage.

That makes a difference; it was the photo of dead toddler Alan Kurdi in 2015 that reportedly spooked the German government into accepting waves of foreigners. The fact that the boy’s family was already in a safe country and was going to Europe only because it’s richer didn’t matter. Rewarding mercenary law-breaking encourages more migrants and means more deaths.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, based in Poland, reported in November 2022 that migration to the continent was spiking. From January to October 2022, more than 275,000 people arrived. Most are now coming through the Western Balkans — about 128,000. The AP reports most are from Burundi, Afghanistan, and Iraq. At least in the latter two cases, they’re coming because of Western foreign intervention and “nation-building.”

The European Union has been begging for help. Italian interior minister Matteo Piantedosi visited Tunisia recently to ask it to control illegal immigration. President Kais Saied was coy, suggesting that his country needs a more comprehensive approach (money, no doubt). Italy is praising Tunisia for efforts to “rescue migrants at sea.” Of course, fewer risks mean more people making the crossing.

The Tunisian president doesn’t like foreigners any more than Italy does. He says newcomers from south of the Sahara could so transform his country that it “has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations.” Naturally, this led to accusations of racism from the “human rights groups” that pop up everywhere (funded by the State Department?) to cheer for demographic replacement. “It is a racist approach just like the campaigns in Europe,” said Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. The international press piled on.

• “Sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia living in ‘climate of fear’ after surge in racist attacks”, France24, April 3, 2023
• “Tunisia’s president is targeting migrants to divert attention from serious domestic problems – a classic tactic”, TheConversation, March 8, 2023
• “Africa migrants suffer under crackdown in Tunisia”, Reuters, March 1, 2023

Europeans who are banking on Tunisia to defend Europe’s borders may be disappointed if Tunisia can’t stand the pressure. If it is forced to let in black Africans it doesn’t want, it certainly won’t stop them from crossing to Europe.

Poland has become an immigration destination now. It issued the most residence permits of any European country, with the overwhelming majority to Ukrainians. But outsiders want it to do more.

The Belarussian regime of Alexander Lukashenko has been using Third-World migration as a weapon against Eastern Europe for years. This is clearly an attempt to hurt Poland (see below), but liberals still can’t bring themselves to admit that it has a right to control its borders. As Social Europe explained in July 2022:

The narrative adopted by the Polish authorities does recognise that some of the people trapped at the border with Belarus are indeed fleeing wars or life-threatening situations in their countries of origin. But it still considers this ‘illegal migration’ and frames it as a matter of national security and violation of the territorial integrity of Poland.

The Belarus president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, is certainly playing a cynical game, misleading those desperate to reach Europe by issuing tourist visas to them. Yet what causes alarm is the response of the Polish authorities—violating human rights and limiting access to information in the border region (an official press centre was only established in December 2021, half a year into the crisis). In February 2022, around 20 migrant deaths were confirmed, the real toll remaining unknown. In the first half of this year, Polish border control encountered more than 5,500 attempted crossings.

DW agrees. It wrote an adoring profile of a woman who helped illegals from Belarus dodge Polish authorities. DW is offended that some Poles don’t like her.

The hatred felt towards her and other human rights activists was stoked by the government in Warsaw. The ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been implementing its right-wing populist agenda without regard to the rule of law or the protection of minorities since its electoral victory in fall 2015.

Since then, the independence of the judiciary has been massively curtailed, abortion rights restricted, LGBTQ people marginalized and insulted, and migrants from the Middle East and Africa labeled as terrorists. While many in Poland support these policies, there are also courageous civil rights activists who are not willing to accept human rights violations.

Whatever the motivations or problems of non-European migrants, what they’re doing is illegal. If Poland doesn’t have the right to resist migrants if they have a sufficiently compelling sob story, what is wrong with what President Lukashenko is doing? Will the Polish government keeping out Jared Taylor help it silence critics who sneer at its “right-wing populist agenda” and think it lacks the “rule of law or the protection of minorities?”

Despite Poland’s staunch defense of Ukraine, the European Union has long been hostile to Warsaw. It has withheld 35 billion euros in grants and loans because it demands the right to overrule Poland’s judicial system reform. That means Poland is losing 500,000 euros a day by decree of the European Court of Justice.

Poland taking in Ukrainians isn’t enough. “[C]ritics of the Polish government argue that the remaking of the judiciary is undermining the entire legal order in Europe and now is the moment to hold firm,” says the New York Times. It quoted a historian who flippantly said that the Polish government believes “anything you do is justified.” The Times says the current Polish administration “may not pull off a third [electoral] victory” and that the European Union, anticipating this, “will likely not disperse . . . pandemic-relief funds to Poland while awaiting the results.” If bribery isn’t an outrageous interference in the internal politics of a presumably sovereign nation, it’s hard to know what is.

The European Union’s commitment to the “entire legal order in Europe” doesn’t include asking the Polish government to explain why it banned a law-abiding American citizen from the entire 27-nation Schengen Zone. Jared Taylor can’t expect any support from outlets that berate Warsaw, nor will the Polish government get any credit for keeping him out. Poland’s opponents will keep up the efforts to undermine its sovereignty.

Italy has the same problem. Pro-migration NGOs, sympathetic media, and EU bureaucrats work together to keep up the pressure. Hostile judges and activist lawyers hobble enforcement of immigration law. It was the supposed illegality of “kidnapping” migrants trying to enter Italy that caused the fall of former prime minister Matteo Salvini in Italy. Even if a nationalist government is elected, a pro-immigration European “Deep State” makes it hard to change policy.

The Polish government should consider this if it keeps banning whites who support Europe’s survival. Washington and Brussels clearly want a government that is more to their liking. The Polish government should realize that if it makes Warsaw unwelcome for “white nationalists” today, the European Union will do its best to make Warsaw unwelcome for Polish nationalists tomorrow.

We win together, or not at all.