Polish party seeking support for referendum on refugees
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
22.01.2016 08:46
Opposition party Kukiz' 15 has started collecting signatures for a referendum on whether Poland should accept refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
Paweł Kukiz, leader of the Kukiz'15 party. Photo: PAP/Rafał Guz
Party leader and veteran rock star Paweł Kukiz said on Thursday that the asylum seekers are “culturally foreign.” He has launched a website via which the signatures for the referendum are being collected.
His recently formed faction, which includes MPs of various political colours, counts among its ranks members of the nationalist group the National Movement.
“Poland is our home and we should decide who will live next to us,” Kukiz said.
Under Polish law, the lower house of parliament or the president may decide to hold a referendum for a civic initiative if 500,000 supporting signatures have been gathered.
Kukiz '15 currently has 42 deputies in the 460-seat lower house.
Law and Justice, the socially conservative party that won the 25 October general election, took a sceptical line on the acceptance of refugees in their campaign, criticising the outgoing Civic Platform government's pledge to take in 7000 refugees as part of an EU initiative.
However, during her address at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Prime Minister Beata Szydło said that Poland would honour its commitments on the refugee question. (ua/nh/pk)