Opposition condemns Polish alliance with Orban and Salvini
Opposition politicians have attacked the government’s new alliance with Viktor Orban and Matteo Salvini, claiming it is against Poland’s national interests.
The alliance was announced on Thursday, following a meeting in Budapest between Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, Orban, his Hungarian counterpart and Salvini, leader of Italy’s Eurosceptic, far-right Northern League party.
The three said Europe and European values need a renaissance, while Orban added they would cooperate to achieve this goal.
"Ruling Law and Justice's and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's alliance with groupings that have come out against sanctions on Russia and are aiming to break up the EU is against Poland’s national interests," Civic Platform's (PO) Andrzej Halicki and Tomasz Siemoniak told a press conference on Friday.
"April 1, 2021 will go down in history as a day when Law and Justice's politicians and the Polish government made a very significant reversal in Polish foreign policy," Siemoniak said, referring to the meeting in Budapest.
He added that the meeting meant Poland was departing from the path that ensures security.
Halicki described plans to build "an anti-EU grouping in the European Parliament" as a betrayal of the Polish national interest.
According to Halicki, Poles should never approve of such moves on the international arena.
Asked by PAP for a comment, government spokesman Piotr Mueller said he was not surprised by the PO attacks.
"The European People's Party (EPP), whose members include PO MEPs, have long strayed away from the EU’s founding values,” he said. “A turn to the left has taken place.
"The EPP has done nothing to block the Nord Stream 2 project which threatens European solidarity," he added.
Mueller said the EU needed agreement among political groupings which wanted a strong Europe of sovereign states. "... a Europe based on the values declared by the EEC founding fathers... a Europe based on good trans-Atlantic relations with the US."
