The Do Rzeczy news portal has made a story out of left-wing columnist Witold Mrozek’s piece in the Berliner Zeitung about the anti-migration protests in Poland and his attacks on Donald Tusk.
Mrozek was reportedly upset about the “Stop Migration” demonstrations that took place in dozens of Polish cities last month, which were co-organized by the Confederation party and supported by football fan groups.
Noting the counter-demonstrations against “racism” and “xenophobia” that were also held, he was disappointed there were only a few people who showed up in Warsaw and “no left-wing MP dared to participate.”
“It’s hard to resist the impression that politicians fear becoming targets of the xenophobic hate campaigns that have become mainstream in Poland,” Mrozek wrote.
In his opinion, anti-immigration campaigns lead to “dark consequences,” such as the attack in Wałbrzych on a Paraguayan man who was wrongly accused of filming children. However, Do Rzezcy notes, Mrozek fails to mention instances of immigrants filming children and even making propositions towards them.
Instead, he quotes “a completely out-of-context statement” by Konrad Berkowicz, a member of parliament from the Confederation, that “xenophobia is an important element of the immune system of the national community.”
As for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the columnist criticizes him as well. “Tusk’s government is trying to control the situation – instead of influencing public opinion, it wants to show that it is decisively combating migration, even though the Polish economy still needs new workers (…),” Mrozek writes, calling the reintroduction of border controls with Germany and Lithuania “concessions” to far-right groups.
Mrozek again fails to mention the actions organized by normal Polish citizens, including their patrols of the border, as well as the fact that the border decision was made due to pressure from a large segment of Poland’s political landscape, including not just the right but the center-right and even parts of the left.
Mrozek concludes that “the fear of migrants is not based on facts,” even citing some figures from the Catholic Church, including statements by Bishops Antoni Długosz and Wiesław Mehring, who expressed their gratitude to activists from the Border Defense Movement, and stressing how the topic has divided the Church.
In the end, he says, Tusk has no business appeasing the right, since for them, he “will forever remain a traitor and a German agent, regardless of his stance on migration.”
