Karol Nawrocki, the presidential candidate of the Polish opposition Conservatives (PiS), has promised to submit legislation guaranteeing that “Poles cannot be treated worse in their own country than immigrants,” should he be elected.
The pledge was part of the PiS’ prioritisation of migration in the election campaign, with the party pressing the government to stop Germany sending back migrants from Poland and making sure that Poles “come first” regarding public provision of health, housing and education.
Immigration has become a major political issue in Poland, which over the past seven years has issued more work permits for people from outside the European Union than has any other member state.
The majority of those arrivals have been from Ukraine, with large numbers also coming from other former Soviet states such as Belarus and Georgia. There have also been rapidly growing numbers of migrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Nawrocki has been competing with Rafał Trzaskowski, the front-runner from Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO). He has also been fighting off a strong challenge from the right-wing Confederation party’s Sławomir Mentzen for second place in the polls.
All three have taken a tough line on migration, with Trzaskowski campaigning to ensure that universal child benefit was only paid to migrants who were in work, and Mentzen proposing there was a need “to start concentrating on deporting rather than integrating migrants”.
Nawrocki, running neck and neck with Mentzen on just over 20 percent in the latest polls, has proposed a law to ensure that “Polish citizens will have priority in queues for doctors and clinics as well as in schools and kindergartens”.
He has also called for there to be no subsidies paid towards pensions for Ukrainian immigrants and others, stating that “social benefits will be primarily for Poles”, should he win.
“If I become president, I will be guided by a simple but important principle: Poland first, Poles first,” declared Nawrocki
“Let’s help others but let’s take care of our own citizens first,” he added.
Presidents in Poland are able to submit legislation to parliament and can veto any laws apart from those relating to the State budget.
Any that are vetoed return to parliament, which must then reach a 60 per cent majority for the presidential veto to be overridden.
The first round of the presidential election has been scheduled to take place on May 18, with an eventual run-off between the top two candidates due on June 1.
The current PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda, coming to the end of his second term, cannot stand again under the Polish Constitution.
