Krzysztof Śmiszek made the statement at a news conference in the northern city of Koszalin on Friday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The Left’s lawmaker said: “The Left has supported the EU migration pact from the start because it is beneficial for Poland.”
He stressed that the EU’s proposed new migration policy “allows the Polish government to apply for exemption from the relocation system,” whereby migrants are shared out between member states.
Śmiszek said the EU’s top migration official Ylva Johansson had confirmed this in official correspondence with the Left’s co-leader, MEP Robert Biedroń.
He told reporters: “Poland is a country under migration pressure. We have welcomed millions of refugees from Ukraine which is currently torn by war. The government only has to apply for exemption [from the EU relocation scheme].”
The Left MP added that “no country in Europe has welcomed more refugees from Ukraine than Poland” and therefore Poland is very much allowed “to be exempt from the relocation mechanism.”
Śmiszek said that the ruling conservatives Law and Justice (PiS) had an interest in “ramping up anti-immigrant disputes” ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections.
Earlier on Friday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland would uphold its veto to the European Union’s plan to relocate migrants between member states at the bloc’s informal summit in Spain next week.
Morawiecki said in a televised address that the EU’s proposed migration pact represented “an attempt to attack not only the sovereignty of Poland and other member states, but also an attempt to destabilize the EU in a non-democratic manner."
On Thursday, the EU’s Johansson said the bloc was set to agree on how to handle irregular immigration, with Germany and Italy concerned over rising arrivals ahead of key elections, the Reuters news agency reported.
The EU’s executive Commission has proposed a system for the sharing out across the EU of asylum seekers who reach Europe outside of official border crossings, according to news outlets.
Last month, Poland's lawmakers approved a government plan to combine the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 15, with a nationwide referendum on issues including illegal migration.
Voters will head to the ballot box to elect 460 new MPs and 100 senators for a four-year term.
The ruling conservative Law and Justice party and its government coalition allies have maintained a clear lead over the opposition in most recent surveys, polling ahead of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), the far-right Confederation group, the Third Way coalition of the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL) and the centre-right Poland 2050 grouping, and The Left.
The ruling conservatives in 2019 won a convincing victory over opposition parties at the ballot box, securing a second term in power.
(pm)
Source: PAP, wnp.pl, TVP Szczecin