Polish leader condemns ‘German arrogance’ amid migrant spat
It also promised to hike welfare spending and taxes on banks and foreign-owned supermarkets.
Waszczykowski’s reassurance came after a Saturday statement by deputy minister for European Union affairs, Konrad Szymanski, who said that because of the Paris terror attacks, Poland will not take in refugees under the hotly contested European Union redistribution programme. She did not specify the means.
But she vowed a harder line in future negotiations on the EU’s relocation plan, even suggesting that Syrians should be sent back to “liberate” their country. But she seemed to indirectly criticize Germany by saying that solidarity does not cover an “export of problems” that a few countries brought on themselves.
Several members of her cabinet have raised security concerns following the Paris attacks as reasons for Poland not to keep to its earlier promise.
Szydlo vowed Poland will be more “active and assertive” in the global arena, with the USA being its chief partner in ensuring security. A few of the reforms, like state funding of health care and a two-level school education, echoed the systems used under communism. Political opponents said her plans were a threat to the state budget.
Poland’s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo speaks during the swearing-in ceremony of the new, conservative government at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland on Monday, Nov.16, 2015.
The speech was followed by a discussion between respective parties, after which the voting took place.
Poland’s new interior minister lashed out Tuesday at the head of the European Parliament amid a disagreement over Warsaw’s migrant policies, calling his words “another example of German arrogance”.