‘Polish Brexit’: Is Poland On Track To Leave The European Union?

Poland vs. European Union. After postponing its decision on whether EU law prevailed over national law four times, the Polish Constitutional Court ruled that certain parts of the continental association treaties are incompatible with its Magna Carta. As a consequence, its internal laws weigh more.

The ultra-conservative prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who in March asked the TC to review the matter, celebrated. “In Poland, the highest legal act is the Constitution and all European regulations that are in force in Poland must comply with the Constitution”.

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In response, the Commissioner for Justice of the European Union, Didier Reynders, Held: “A series of principles on which our Union is founded is being questioned, and this justifies that the European Commission, as guardian of the treaties, takes action on the matter”.

Franceso Tucci, internationalist and professor at the UPC and PUCP, explains that Poland is violating the basic principle of the European Union: “its members must cede part of their sovereignty to community bodies”.

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He explains that the EU has two ways of doing “give priority to community law over national law“: through regulations or directives. “The first is published in the European bulletin and, after a certain period, is law. And if there is an internal law that goes against it, the latter is no longer applied.”.

The directivesOn the contrary, they allow States to be free to choose their internal norms, as long as they help to achieve the objective set by the community.

“Questioning this means there will be uncertainty. Uncertainty of employers and workers from member countries of the community who are in Poland, because the rules could change”.

Mateusz Morawiecki, el primer ministro de Polonia. AP (Petr David Josek /)

How will the European Union respond? Tucci recalls that, according to the Lisbon Treaty, no country can be expelled. He also rules out the possibility of suspending Poland, since unanimity would be needed and the country would have the grace of other nations.

The retaliation would undoubtedly be economic. “It is unbelievable that a country that has benefited overwhelmingly from the EU is now questioning it. The first thing that will happen is that they will stop sending funds”.

Indeed, since its entry into the European Union on May 1, 2004, Poland grew to “an annual average of more than 4% without a single negative year”. In addition, if one takes into account that, according to “El País”, “about 60% of Polish public investment is covered by these structural funds“Of the EU, the future of one of the nations”more dependent on Union mana” is at risk.

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Enemy on the prowl: nationalisms

For Tucci, if the European Union experiences this situation, it is its own fault: “For greed, for wanting to enlarge the common market without considering the political elements”.

“Countries such as Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic are part of the Visegrad Group, and they entered the European Union after the dissolution of the Soviet bloc. The EU was wrong to incorporate countries that do not have a similar trajectory and that have different values”.

And that’s where a diametrical factor comes in: nationalism. In times of great illegal migration, Tucci says, just those countries have refused to share the burden. A good example is Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, who for years has been bent on building border walls.

“This is the weakest point of the EU, and it is repeated in several Western countries. Look like VOX [el partido ultraderechista] gained relevance in Spain, the National Association in France or the Fratelli d’Italia”.

Thousands of people gathered in Warsaw in favor of Poland remaining a member state of the European Union. EFE (Czarek Sokolowski /)

“This nationalism is Eurosceptic: they are against the community project. And now, in Poland, the nationalist party defines the EU as an empire and that is very dangerous.”.

The ‘Brexit’ example

But Tucci does not agree to start talking about the ‘polegit’, a term derived from ‘brexit’ and that it alludes to Poland leaving the community. It’s a hasty linguistic device, he argues.

It is true that there are certain similarities – “british politician Nigel Farage, one of those who pushed the UK out of the bloc, spoke of reappropriating lost sovereignty”- but they are not comparable scenarios.

“The UK’s contribution to the European Union was very high, while Poland is a host state. The British were not satisfied with the benefits of being part of the community, which, added to migratory pressure, xenophobia and discontent over unemployment, led them to point to the EU as responsible for the internal crisis”.

“In any case, we have to wait and see how the conflict develops, because it is a very serious situation. It remains to be seen what the sanctions will be and how the Polish nationalist government will react. There are a whole series of elements that can make us think that the crisis could get worse”.

In response, citizens decided to take to the streets to demonstrate in favor of being part of the European Union. According to Reuters, on Sunday protests were held in “100 towns and cities”Poles, while Warsaw, the capital, gathered between 80 thousand and one hundred thousand protesters.

“We stayedThey yelled repeatedly.

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