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Ruling party leader says Poland’s future is in EU, no ‘Polexit’

Radek Pietruszka/PAP

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a deputy prime minister and leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, has said he sees Poland’s future in the EU and that there will be “no Polexit” although Poland wishes to remain a sovereign country.

His comments come after some opposition politicians suggested that PiS wants Poland to leave the EU. The country is also embroiled in a number of disputes with the bloc that have soured Warsaw-Brussels relations.

But Kaczynski told PAP that Poland will not follow the UK’s example and leave the EU.

“There will be no Polexit. It’s a propaganda invention that has been used many times against us,” he said. “We unambiguously see the future of Poland in the European Union.”

He noted, however, that his party wants to end what he sees as a crisis in the EU in which treaties are broken and states treated differently.

“The principle of the equality of states is being broken and in a drastic way,” he said. “There is also a visible tendency for the strongest states to instrumentalise the EU, especially one – Germany. We have to resist that. We are in favour of the EU treaties being clarified so that various types of abuse will be made radically more difficult.”

Although stressing Poland’s commitment to the EU, Kaczynski also said that national sovereignty had to be protected. Poland has accused the EU of infringing on its sovereignty by opposing changes to the country’s judicial system introduced by the PiS-dominated government.

“We want to be in the (European) Union, but at the same time we want to remain a sovereign state,” he said. “We want what was agreed in the treaties to be very strictly observed.”

In this context, Kaczynski highlighted the rule of law as an area whose remit was entirely that of the member states and “cannot be the subject of the type of interference that is currently occurring.”

He added that the equality of states was also very important and that “if something is allowed in one state, it is allowed in all.”

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