EU’s Immigration Meeting & more – 11th July 2023

Let’s start with domestic affairs.

On Thursday, the 6th, the prime minister and opposition leaders came together to discuss the EU’s new migration deal, which requires member states to accept immigrants who previously entered the Union illegally. Nationalistic opposition parties, The Polish People’s Party, or PSL, the Confederation Party, and the Kukiz-15 Party took part in the important meeting, while Civic Platform, the main opposition party, the Left, and the Poland twenty fifty parties refused to do so. In the meeting, the ruling party expressed firm opposition against the EU’s migration deal.

Participants expressed their opinion.

Władysław Kosiniak, the leader of the PSL, stated that his party opposes the EU’s migration deal. Also, he asked the EU for 1,100 dollars per Ukrainian refugee staying in Poland. Meanwhile, Krzysztof Bosak, the leader of the Confederation Party, said that the EU’s new deal is against the national interest of Poland, since the conservative party doesn’t want illegal migrants in the country. Piotr Müller, the government spokesman, criticized parties that refused to attend the historic meeting.

Parties who didn’t attend the meeting also had their say.

Borys Budka, the chairman of the Civic Platform, the main opposition party, called the prime minister a ‘liar’ and a ‘cheater’, and said that the party will not sit at the table with him. The Poland twenty fifty Party also stated that the meeting was pointless and that the party is not interested in the Prime Minister’s immigrant policy.

Speaking of the opposition.

On Monday, the 10th, Robert Biedroń, the co-chairman of the Left party, stated that opposition parties are trying to form an alliance before the elections called The Senate Pact. Yet, the Left Party stated that the negotiations between parties broke off because some parties want to renegotiate some principles and decisions of the pact.

However, the Civic Platform says that parties have completed most of the negotiations on the common Senate pact. A politician said that because the main opposition party pushes for a joint list for the parliamentary elections, the parties have not announced the pact yet.

When it comes to the Polish Parliament.

On Friday, the 7th, the parliament rejected a proposal to dismiss Mariusz Błaszczak, the defense minister, from his position. Previously, the opposition parties wanted Błaszczak to resign because last year a Russian missile hit Poland, and the defense ministry was not aware of the incident for months. During the parliament session, the prime minister stated that the opposition parties are acting according to what the media said. He said that they did not pay attention to his explanations about the incident.

We are ending our debate on the domestic sphere with an update on the Russian spy network in the country.

On Monday, the 10th, Polish security forces detained another spy in the country. Poland’s Internal Security Agency stated that the person was a Ukrainian citizen working for the Russian intelligence service. Poland continues its operation against Russian and Belarusian spy networks.

Let’s also see what is new in the foreign sphere.

The government had several meetings to develop Poland’s foreign relations further.

On Thursday, the 6th, President Duda met with his Lithuanian counterpart in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius. The meeting marked Lithuania’s Statehood Day. The Polish president stated that both countries are closer to each other than ever. Duda also commented on the next NATO summit, which will take place in Vilnius. He said that he believes the next summit will offer Ukraine a pathway to NATO.

Speaking of NATO…

On Monday, the 10th, President Duda urged NATO to extend its fuel pipelines up to Poland. Before leaving the country for the NATO summit, Duda said that NATO’s fuel pipelines only reach up to Germany. He said that he will urge for the extension to protect NATO’s Eastern Flank when it is needed. Duda also stated that NATO should take the developments in Belarus seriously as the country has Russian nuclear weapons and Wagner’s paid soldiers.

On Sunday, the 9th, Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to the victims of the Volhynia massacre. The Volhynia Massacres took place between nineteen forty-three and nineteen forty-five, and Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered almost 100,000 Poles to have a sovereign Ukrainian state after the Second World War. Both presidents honored the victims of the incident.

On Wednesday, the 5th, Poland made a historic agreement with Britain on defense cooperation. Four ministers from both countries came together at Lancaster House in the British capital. The two countries signed the twenty thirty Strategic Partnership agreement, which is a collective response to the external threats of both countries. Reporters stated that the agreement was a response to the Russian threat.

Now on relations with the US…

On the same day, the Pentagon announced that the US army would station in Poland to complete its missile defense shield over Europe. The US is setting up a defense shield in Europe to protect it against a possible ballistic missile attack from third countries. Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, said that the Polish section of the defense system will be completed by the end of this year.

In unrelated news…

On Wednesday, the 5th, multiple weather-related incidents took place as severe thunderstorms swept across the country. Polish firefighters carried out up to 395 interventions related to the storms. In Opole City, the storm led to the collapse of one farmhouse. In the Silesia region, a lot of trees fell onto the roads, and some damaged cars

On Sunday, the 9th, the Polish Economic Institute announced that sixty percent of Poles plan a summer vacation. Most of them are planning a domestic holiday on the Baltic Sea coast, while others prefer to go to foreign countries. Most people prefer Croatia when it comes to taking vacations abroad, followed by Greece and Spain. Yet, many Poles stated that they can’t afford a vacation abroad.

Maybe a vacation on the Baltic Sea coasts is not the best idea, since there is a rising presence of bacteria.

The Chief Sanitary Inspectorate has closed six beaches along the Baltic Sea for swimming. The dangerous bacteria is blue-green algae, which is dangerous to the human body and leads to skin irritation or vomiting. Experts said that people can understand whether the water has these bacteria or not by looking at it. If the water is colored and there is a characteristic green, blue, or gray scum on it, it has bacteria.

Another epidemic appeared among domestic cats…

Veterinary authorities announced that there has been an increase in the H5N1 avian flu variant, known as bird flu, in domestic cats in recent days. Krzysztof Pyrć, a virologist, said that the infection is not caused by poultry meat. Authorities have put those who had infected cats in their homes under epidemic supervision.

In case you couldn’t listen to our previous update, we have two new shows! These are the Rorshok Multilateral Update, covering the world's major multilateral institutions, and the Ocean’s Update about 70% of Earth's surface covered in salt water.Intrigued? Listen to them in your podcast favorite app. You can also check out the rest of our Country Updates, to see what’s going on in the rest of the world!

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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