The French ambassador to Poland was summoned on Friday by the Polish foreign minister after President Emmanuel Macron branded Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki a “far-right antisemite”.
The Polish foreign ministry summoned the ambassador on Friday, with spokesman Łukasz Jasina writing on Twitter that the French ambassador had been summoned over comments made by President Macron in the Le Parisien newspaper.
The comments were made on Thursday during an interview with President Macron, who stated that Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was “a far-right anti-Semite” and claimed, without offering any supporting evidence, that he “bans LGBT people”.
Macron had previously accused the Polish leader of interfering in the French election, Le Figaro reports.
Macron is also said to have alleged a close relationship between Prime Minister Morawiecki and his main rival in the presidential race, populist National Rally leader Marine Le Pen.
Morawiecki and Le Pen have attended conservative conferences in recent months, including one organised by the populist party VOX in Spain earlier this year.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller reacted to Macron’s remarks on Friday, saying they were “incomprehensible” and blaming the rhetoric on the French presidential election campaign.
“[T]alking about the Prime Minister of the Polish government in the context of anti-Semitism is, quite simply, a lie, it has nothing to do with the facts,” Müller said, adding: “I hope that this election campaign in France will calm down a bit, and then the President of France will speak differently and really stick to the historical facts.”
Macron’s comments in Le Parisien come just days after Prime Minister Morawiecki criticised the French leader for continuing to hold talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
“President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin and what have you achieved?” the Polish leader asked.
“We do not discuss, we do not negotiate with criminals. Criminals have to be fought against,” he went on.
“Nobody negotiated with Hitler. You would negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot afterwards?”