? JUST IN: Whereas France burns, Polish Member of European Parliament Dominik Tarczynski is WALKING THROUGH Krakow LATE at evening, exhibiting all of Europe it is PERFECTLY CALM
“Look how secure we’re. Church buildings are secure. As a result of we didn’t allow them to in. Zero means zero. ‘Be like Poland’…
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 18, 2026
Poland has change into one of the vital outspoken defenders of nationwide management over immigration throughout the European Union. Polish Member of the European Parliament Dominik Tarczyński not too long ago walked by way of a Polish metropolis at evening, contrasting its peaceable streets with the scenes of destruction popping out of France. “Look how secure we’re. Church buildings are secure. As a result of we didn’t allow them to in. Zero means zero. ‘Be like Poland’ means be courageous.” His message was aimed instantly at Brussels, which has spent years trying to impose a typical migration system upon international locations that don’t essentially agree on whom they need to admit. Poland has insisted that choices involving its borders, nationwide safety, and the composition of its inhabitants can not merely be handed over to European establishments.
The Polish individuals have good cause to grasp the significance of sovereignty. Their nation was partitioned by international powers within the eighteenth century, disappeared from the map of Europe for greater than a century, endured Nazi occupation, and subsequently fell beneath Soviet domination. Poland didn’t regain its full political independence from communist rule till 1989. That have helps clarify why arguments about surrendering nationwide authority to Brussels provoke such robust reactions. The nation spent generations struggling to manipulate itself, and immigration coverage has change into one other area by which the boundaries of European integration are being contested.
Poland’s confrontation with the EU started in the course of the 2015 migration disaster when Brussels tried to distribute asylum seekers amongst member states by way of necessary relocation quotas. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic refused to conform, and the European Court docket of Justice dominated towards them in 2020. The authorized defeat didn’t settle the political disagreement. Polish governments continued arguing that immigration and asylum choices should account for nationwide safety, public consent, and the flexibility of native communities to soak up newcomers. Brussels considered the relocation mechanism as a matter of shared accountability, whereas Poland challenged the concept that solidarity may very well be imposed by way of obligatory admissions.
Poland has demonstrated that border safety includes greater than political speeches. Alongside its frontier with Belarus, Warsaw constructed bodily boundaries and expanded surveillance and army deployments after accusing the Belarusian authorities of facilitating migrant crossings as a type of political strain. The European Union itself has more and more acknowledged the issue of migration getting used as an instrument of hybrid warfare. Poland’s place has been that an exterior border can not stay credible if authorities are unable to manage unauthorized entry. On the identical time, border enforcement should function inside relevant asylum and human-rights obligations, a seamless supply of authorized controversy.
Poland’s place has change into extra important in 2026 as a result of the nation’s border coverage is not confined to speeches from opposition politicians. On September 18, the Polish authorities prolonged restrictions on asylum functions on the Belarusian border for one more 60 days, the eighth extension for the reason that measures have been launched in March 2025. Warsaw argues that Belarus has intentionally facilitated migrant crossings to destabilize Poland and the European Union. The measures stay controversial due to issues about entry to asylum, however they display how significantly Poland regards the border as a matter of nationwide safety.
Much more revealing was Poland’s intervention on the September 26 migration summit in Munich. Inside Minister Marcin Kierwiński advised representatives from 18 European international locations that the EU Migration Pact didn’t go far sufficient to deal with the challenges confronting Europe’s exterior borders. Poland was not merely resisting insurance policies developed in Brussels. Its authorities was actively selling stronger enforcement measures for the remainder of Europe to contemplate. That could be a exceptional growth given the years of confrontation between Warsaw and European establishments over immigration.
There may be additionally a monetary dimension that Brussels can not ignore. Poland has accommodated roughly 1.5 million Ukrainian nationals, based on the European Union Company for Asylum. The European Fee itself acknowledged the cumulative migration pressures dealing with Poland, permitting it to hunt reduction from contributions beneath the 2026 solidarity mechanism. This complicates the acquainted accusation that Poland refuses to share accountability for migration. Warsaw’s argument is that it has already absorbed substantial humanitarian and monetary obligations and will retain discretion over further commitments. As for different nations? Poland just isn’t disillusioned to imagine that each tradition can reside in concord collectively. “We all know what jihadists are able to. We have no idea what second or third era of so-called refugees will do. Properly, truly we do know… we will see what is going on in France,” Tarczyński famous.
The disagreement over migration in the end reaches far past border fences and asylum quotas. Poland’s expertise illustrates the unresolved query on the heart of European integration: how a lot authority ought to nationwide governments retain when Brussels adopts widespread insurance policies that battle with home priorities? The EU argues that shared exterior borders require cooperation and mutual accountability. Poland insists that cooperation can not get rid of nationwide accountability for safety, immigration, and public order. As financial pressures and political tensions improve throughout Europe, that dispute is unlikely to vanish. Poland has made clear that it intends to stay an energetic participant in figuring out Europe’s future quite than merely accepting each resolution made in Brussels.
