EU leaders out of touch with normal people, Poland says


Morawiecki also defended Poland's judicial purge and warned of the dangers of Russian "imperialism".





He also mentioned anti-migrant hostility.

"All European opinion polls say the top issue for European societies are migration and terrorism ... We have to listen to people's concerns," Morawiecki said.





He spoke to the French newspaper amid an ongoing clash between Brussels and Warsaw on rule of law and migrants.

The EU has threatened sanctions against Poland after its government began firing judges and replacing them with political allies.


Morawiecki's talk of "new forces" comes amid talks between Poland and Italy on the formation of a new European parliament group after the May vote.

New EP group?

The Italian government also wants to pull in far-right MEPs from Denmark, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, and further afield.

But even if the new EP group ends up being smaller than Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini might wish for, Morawiecki predicted that like-minded MEPs from other groups would end up voting together in a force to be reckoned with.

The Czech Republic was with the liberals, Hungary was in the centre-right EPP group, and Slovakia was in the centre-left S&D one, but "we understand each other very well", Morawiecki said.


Morawiecki compared the purge to what France did with Nazi collaborators from the World War Two Vichy-regime and what Germany did with judges from the former East Germany.



Domestic abuse

"Western Europe was always shielded from Russia by central Europe ... [so] they see Russia as an economic and trade partner," he added, bemoaning Germany's decision to build a new gas pipeline with Russia, called Nord Stream 2.

Morawiecki's talk of a "Europe of nation states" was mild compared to the eurosceptic rhetoric his government used at home, however.



His talk on how the EU and Macron were out of touch with average people masked the fact that his own government was increasingly out of touch with Polish voters, however.

Pro-EU opposition parties in Poland were on track to win the EP vote with 42 percent compared to 37.5 percent for Morawiecki's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, according to a January poll.

PiS haemorrhaged support in Polish cities in local elections last year.

A poll in November also showed that EU Council chief and former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk enjoyed 47.7 percent of Polish people's "trust", beating Duda (45.8 percent) and Morawiecki himself (42 percent).