Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is declaring that his government would reduce the number of visas issued to citizens of African and Asian countries by half compared to last year. He emphasized that in 2024 Poland allocated 67 percent more for defense than in the last year of the rule of Law and Justice.
“In 2025 we will issue 50 percent fewer visas for those looking for a place in Poland or Europe, from African and Asian countries,” said the prime minister. “Why do I talk about it with such satisfaction? Because we are talking about hundreds of thousands of visas issued, in the corruption mechanism, [about] what has happened in recent years of the PiS government.”
Other members of the govermnet, such as MP Patryk Jaskulski, trumpeted the new poliicy.
“End of uncontrolled migration! Every visa application is now carefully checked, and the number of visas for citizens of African and Asian countries has already been reduced by 50%. We act decisively and responsibly,” wrote the MP on X.
Tusk is referring to a visa scandal that rocked the previous conservative government, which PiS argued only involved an isolated number of officials within the party and which ultimately resulted in the suicide of one of the main suspects. Nonetheless, the optics of the visa scandal hurt PiS; it also came on top of the party’s clear efforts to ramp up legal immigration, which resulted in a record number of Africans and Asians arriving in the country.
Tusk and his coalition parties are still reeling from the victory of the conservative candidate for president, Karol Nawrocki, in the presidential election at the beginning of this month. Nawrocki ran on a platform of controlling immigration and accused Tusk’s government of playing ball with the EU on the EU’s migration pact, which is slated to add hundreds of thousands of migrants to Poland over the coming years.
Notably, under Tusk’s government, 49 integration centers have been constructed in order to prepare Poland for mass immigration. The Foreigners’ Integration Centres (CICs) are, aimed at helping newly arrived migrants integrate into Polish society, the European Commission announced last year.
The centers, designed as “one-stop shops,” will provide standardized services, including language courses, legal assistance, and psychological care, and will work with NGOs to cater to a large influx of immigration from outside the European Union under the left-liberal coalition government.
However, Tusk may be realizing that mass immigration continues to be a losing policy issue, and he has upcoming national elections to worry about. He is now looking to frame PiS as the pro-immigration party in an effort to win back voters.
While a 50 percent reduction in immigration would represent a significant drop in visas, this cut is already coming from an elevated level of such immigration.
Paweł Lisicki, the influential editor of Polish media outlet Do Rzezcy, said just a few months ago that Poland is rapidly changing, with the country seeing a crash in birthrates while simultaneously embracing mass immigration.
“Poland is following the path of the West, i.e., France, Italy and other countries. Everything is happening the same way. Mass migration of Muslims in Poland is a fact,” said Lisicki in a conversation on the “Anti-System” media program with Wojciech Cejrowski. ”We are following the West into the abyss.”
A report from French newspaper Le Monde before the presidential election detailed how the European Union was giving Poland leeway on the issue of immigration in order to ensure a liberal candidate won the presidential election. However, Nawrocki’s victory spoiled this scheme, leaving the EU elite with questions about their next move. The main question is whether Brussels will continue to provide Tusk with leeway on the issue going forward, as his coalition now is threatened with losing power.
Poland remains a highly homogenous society, and only in the last few years has mass immigration truly accelerated. Unlike Germany and other Western European countries, Poland’s populace and political establishment may be ready to push back much harder on the issue, complicating matters for the pro-migration elite that run Europe. In addition, the right-wing Confederation party is growing in popularity, hitting 20 percent in polls for the first time following the election.
Tusk is not only relying on the issue of immigration to tackle his political rivals. He is also trying to portray himself as strong on defense, an issue typically ceded to the conservatives. He said that in 2024, his government spent 67 percent more on defense than the government of Law and Justice a year earlier.
“How much do you think expenses increased, that is, real money spent to defend Polish territory?” Tusk asked. “What do you think? Six percent? Or maybe you think 16 percent? No, we spent 67 percent more on the Polish army in one year.”
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