Poland unveiled a new referendum question on Sunday pertaining to the EU’s policy on asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa.
The referendum will ask Poles if they back taking in “thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa” as part of an EU relocation scheme, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The referendum is set for October 15, the same day parliamentary elections will take place.
Although Poland has taken in more than a million Ukrainian refugees, the central European country has been less open to asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries. In recent months, migrants from the Mideast and Africa have been trying to cross the Belarusian border into Poland, with Warsaw accusing Minsk of using desperate people as a political weapon.
Can the PiS use migration again for electoral success?
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) wants to make migration a major electoral issue, as it seeks to keep the opposition Civic Platform from gaining power. The Civic Platform (PO) is led by Donald Tusk, who served as Polish prime minister from 2007 to 2014 and later as president of the European Council.
www.dw.com/en/poland-unveils-referendum-on-eu-migrant-policy/a-66520489