Leer en Español
At this very moment, thousands of Middle Eastern migrants are waiting in the cold forests of the Polish-Belarusian border, hoping to enter the European Union. Unfortunately, they are mere pawns being callously used in the geopolitical game of “Europe’s last dictator”, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Many are now stranded at the border, setting up camps as Polish forces prevent them from entering the country. The Union accused Lukashenko of helping illegal immigrants to cross to Poland in retaliation for the sanctions the EU imposed over his regime for the 2020 election fraud, which predictably Lukashenko denies and shows how these actions are, at best, inefficient.
In a twist of fate, Brussels’s unelected “high representatives” now rely on one of the EU’s black sheep, Poland, to defend its borders. Ironically, the reasons the Polish government is ostracized within the EU make it the perfect defender of the EU’s external border. Poland has refused to both be paralyzed by political correctness and ban words like “nation” or “sovereignty” from public discourse, and the government strongly rejects the false mantras of the globalist elites that call putting national interest first “fascist.”
Unsurprisingly, the liberal mainstream and their lobbying groups in Brussels have not noticed the disagreements between Poland and the EU on topics such as LGBT promotion or illegal migration. The Polish people have firmly rejected both concepts which weaken European society: uncontrolled illegal migration supported by irresponsible and false moral codes and progressive identity politics that undermine the traditional family. EU leaders, however, should focus on the enemies at the Union’s gates and ignore the Brussels lobby that would rather see Poland abandoned and punished.
“Everybody who knows Polish history should know that any attack on the unity of the country and its sovereignty can trigger a heavy reaction from Warsaw,” said Polish journalist Michał Kłosowski to El American, referring to the country’s long fight for its independence and unity.
The current border crisis has certainly triggered a heavy reaction, as can be seen by the effective and organized method the Polish armed forces have defended the Union’s Eastern border. The EU’s intention to send a few hundred Frontex officers is as a joke as the Brussels Lobby has bitterly criticized the agency. Much to the chagrin of Brussels, the majority of the Polish public supports their government. According to a recent poll, 54% of the population views the government’s recent actions in a positive light.
The European Union also risks turning Belarus into Europe’s Venezuela, where the fates of Belarusian people, democracy and freedom are sacrificed on the altar of so-called ‘dialogue.’ After 6 years of increasingly shameful corruption and drug trafficking of the Maduro regime, the European Union still sent observers to the Caribbean country to monitor the recent elections. Only the budget of this trip (covered by EU taxpayer money) could be as sadly surprising as the fact that the observers reported “major improvement” besides irregularities.
Thus, the EU maintains some sanctions but does nothing against the Venezuelan narco-money. Even more incredulously, they allow this blood money to finance political parties such as the Union’s “foreign minister,” Catalan socialist Josep Borrell’s Socialist Party’s (PSOE) coalition partner, Podemos. It was him who said a year ago that Belarus should be treated in the same manner as Maduro’s Venezuela. So far, neither of the two regimes seems to be seriously impaired by the EU’s current course of action.
In Belarus’s case, “No sanctions against Lukashenko’s regime will work if they do not affect the most important sectors of Lukashenko’s economy and sources of – mostly his personal – incomes. Neither, any sanctions will be significant if they do not affect Russia, who is behind the whole situation,” believes Kłosowski. The EU can ban travel, freeze assets of various political figures, target certain industries (e.g. imposing sanctions on airlines trafficking migrants to Minsk) but if it fails to hit these regimes where they hurt the most, it’s likely that nothing will change.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is traveling in Europe to meet several European heads of states to discuss such further actions. The latest package of sanctions is under preparations and shall be adopted in early December.
The European Union is at a crossroads, and the coming weeks will reveal if it is capable of overcoming the politics of unproductive sanctions and ideological lecturing. It must decide whether it will strike back against its enemies instead of its friends and engage in honest dialogue with its member states instead of criminals.
Péter is a Hungarian journalist and podcaster based in Budapest. He writes a weekly column for El American on European politics, culture, and many other things. He’s also the strategic director of the digital outlet Axióma. He loves cachapa con queso 'e mano. // Péter es un periodista y podcaster húngaro con base en Budapest. Escribe una columna semanal para El American sobre temas políticos y culturales de Europa. Es también director estrategico del medio digital Axióma. Le encanta la cachapa con queso 'e mano.