Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary saved themselves from “the alien culture” of Islam when they rejected migrant quotas, said Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro in an interview for Polish public television (TVP).
Ziobro was referring to the recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) verdict on April 2, which stated that Poland, Czechia, Hungary had broken EU law by refusing to participate in a migrant relocation mechanism.
“Some EU institutions are completely detached from reality. Poland was right to not accept refugees, as was Czechia and Hungary. We protected our sovereignty from the alien culture of Islam when there was an attempt to impose it on us,” he said.
In its statement, the ECJ ruled against Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, writing that the countries had an obligation to accept a portion of the 160,000 migrants the European Council sought to distribute from Southern Europe — where over a million predominately Middle-Eastern migrants arrived in 2015 and 2016 — to countries across the EU.
The EU made this decision after Germany and other southern countries became overburdened with migrants, but Poland and Hungary refused to accept a single migrant while the Czech Republic accepted only 12.
Niektóre instytucje #UE są kompletnie oderwane od rzeczywistości. Polska słusznie nie przyjęła uchodźców, podobnie jak Czechy i Węgry. Broniliśmy naszej suwerenności przed obcą nam kulturą islamu, którą chciano nam narzucić. pic.twitter.com/FW7ckvKgrv
— Zbigniew Ziobro | SP (@ZiobroPL) April 6, 2020
Speaking about the coronavirus pandemic, Ziobro argued that the EU is not helping in times of crisis and is showing “great weakness” during the pandemic. He said this was most evidenced by the fact that for weeks it has done nothing to help the hardest-hit countries.
Ziobro pointed out that while the EU apologized to Italians, it also promised new additional funds to Poland, which turned out to be untrue.
“They simply said that we can use the funds already at Poland’s disposal for different infrastructure goals to fight the pandemic, so they aren’t giving us anything new,” the minister emphasized.
He stressed that during the crisis, it is obvious what is functioning properly — nation states such as Germany, Italy and Spain and not EU institutions.
Minister Ziobro declared that this is the reason why Poland will want the EU to roll back certain restrictions because it will lead to, for example, cheaper prices for energy.
“This mainly concerns the incredibly high price we pay due to conducting the so-called climate policy. If we resigned from some of the solutions imposed on us, it could lead to a decrease in prices of energy and electricity in Poland,” he explained.
Hungary and the Czech Republic also reject EU court verdict on migrant quotas
The Hungarian and Czech governments have come out against migrant quotas and have roundly rejected the EU’s court verdict on migrant quotas.
For example, top Czechs politicians said the verdict was “irrelevant” and “unimportant”.
“The only point is that we will not accept any migrants and that the quotas have expired in the meantime, especially thanks to us,” said Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
Hungary has the same attitude towards migration quotas, with the country’s justice minister saying the verdict did not lead to any punishment and that other countries have also refused to accept their full share of migrants, including France.
“The ruling has no further consequences,” Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said in a statement. “Since the quota decisions have long lost their validity, we have no obligations to take in asylum seekers.”
The three countries involved are not the only ones who see migrant quotas as a failed policy. Austria has now also voiced its opposition against migrant quotas, with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz saying such a migrant quota scheme like the one implemented in 2015 should never happen again.
