The Polish ambassador in Rome has rejected the new European Union migrant redistribution agreement, stating that no migrants will be accepted in Poland.
Ambassador Anna Maria Anders said that the government in Warsaw would only welcome migrants who share linguistic and cultural traditions with the Polish people, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.
“The EU wants redistribution, but we do not change our point of view. Warsaw is already doing so much. In Poland, there are two million Ukrainians, many of whom have fled from war zones. They integrate well, share in part our language, traditions, and culture,” Anders said.
She went on to stress the importance of Christianity in Poland, saying: “The role of Christianity is a glue of the Polish nation. And this must be respected.”
“For almost half a century we have not had the opportunity to show our flags, to freely demonstrate, to sing our slogans and anthem. Now, we have the freedom to do so and it is not possible to be dismissed as a nationalist just because we proudly reveal our identity,” she added, referring to the country long years under a communist puppet regime during the Cold War.
The EU migrant agreement, known as the Malta agreement, was agreed upon by five European Union member-states’ interior ministers earlier this week.
The draft deal would see countries take newly arrived migrants from hotspots such as Italy and Greece within four weeks of their arrival.
The agreement is seen as a win for Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, whose new leftist coalition government had begun easing policy on migrant transport NGO vessels operating off the so-called search-and-rescue zone near Libyan territorial waters.
The policy of opening Italy’s ports comes after over a year of closed ports as part of the policy of populist former interior minister Matteo Salvini, of the right-populist League (Lega) party.
Salvini’s policy drastically reduced the number of drowning deaths in the Mediterranean Sea.
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