Poland

Prime Minister of Poland

03 Aug 2023 1 2

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 1 year ago

“Even if we did not get this approval ... we would still transfer our tanks together with others to Ukraine. The condition for us at the moment is to build at least a small coalition of countries.”

Prime Minister of Poland

23 Jan 2023 (approx) 2 1

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 1 year ago

“We can't look at the pipelines only in business terms, as some politicians have done - we know which ones. We can't accept that the sanctions against Russia are unnecessary (...) and we can't treat the German government's policy as sacred. German politicians say empty words, using slogans such as 'sovereignty' and other things. But are there higher values than life?”

Baltictimes

Prime Minister of Poland

16 Sep 2022 4 3

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 1 year ago

“This is a great moment for Europe's unity and for the defence of its basic values. The struggle for freedom goes on.”

Prime Minister of Poland

23 Jun 2022 3 3

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are constructing a package of concrete sanctions, which are to be much stronger than thos from 2014.”

Prime Minister of Poland

18 Feb 2022 3 3

Zbigniew Rau

Inserted 2 years ago

“I want to emphasize that the weapons being transferred to Ukraine are defensive and act as a reaction to the deteriorating security situation around this country. The support being extended to the state, which seeks to defend its territorial integrity in line with the fundamental principles of international law, also demonstrates our respect for the European security architecture, which is based on international principles and commitments.”

Interfax

Polish minister for foreign affairs

15 Feb 2022 3 3

Andrzej Duda

Inserted 2 years ago

“If the law came into force it could violate a treaty signed with the United States on economic and trade relations. One of the arguments considered during the analyses of this law was the issue of an international agreement that was concluded in 1990... this treaty speaks about the protection of investments. There is a clause which says that media-related investments may be excluded, but it concerns future investments.”

President of Poland

27 Dec 2021 6 3

Jaroslaw Kaczynski

Inserted 2 years ago

“Some countries are not enthusiastic at the prospect of a German fourth reich being built on the basis of the EU. If we Poles agreed with this kind of modern-day submission we would be degraded in different ways.”

Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and leader of the Law and Justice party

24 Dec 2021 3 2

Evelyne Paradis

Inserted 2 years ago

“Poland and Hungary are not anomalies. In the past year, we've seen increased political repression against LGBT people, a stark rise in socioeconomic hardship, and the spreading of LGBT-phobic hatred on the streets and online across the region.”

Executive director of the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe)

23 Dec 2021 4 3

Andrzej Duda

Inserted 2 years ago

“In 2008, there was an attack on Georgia. Six years passed. In 2014, there was an attack on Ukraine. A few more than six years have passed, and here we have the current situation. Nearly seven years have passed since 2014. Russia has once again gathered strength. Russia is once again flexing its muscles.”

President of Poland

20 Dec 2021 3 2

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“Today, on Poland's Eastern border, we are dealing with a new type of war, a war in which migrants are weapons, in which disinformation is a weapon, a hybrid war. [I received] information that the difficult situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country in August may by used as the next stage of the migration crisis. I think that the things that unfold before our eyes, these dramatic events, may only be a prelude to something much worse.”

Prime Minister of Poland

21 Nov 2021 7 3

Dunja Mijatovic

Inserted 2 years ago

“I have personally listened to the appalling accounts of extreme suffering from desperate people … who spent weeks or even months in squalid and extreme conditions in the cold and wet woods due to these pushbacks. All pushbacks must end immediately.”

Commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe

19 Nov 2021 3 3

Anna Michalska

Inserted 2 years ago

“[The Belarusians] were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross. At the start, there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”

Polish Border Guard spokeswoman

19 Nov 2021 2 2

Sophie in 't Veld

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's interesting to see that Poland, which has been one of the strongest opponents of the EU's common asylum system, is now asking the EU to help fund a border wall. We are talking about a few thousand migrants. A wall is not the solution. It's time for EU nations to speak with a unified voice when it comes to migration. Nationalistic dialogues are pushing the Union to the brink.”

Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 party and member of the European Parliament

17 Nov 2021 4 3

Marta Gorczynska

Inserted 2 years ago

“In 2015, it was the first time the refugee policy was discussed at a national level in Poland. Right-wing groups began fuelling an anti-immigrant sentiment by referring to migrants as terrorists who would destabilise Poland and the EU. But people who are afraid of refugees often don't know anything about them. A lot of people living in this border zone are old and lived through the Second World War. They know what it's like to be a refugee. They initially kept their doors open to help those stranded in the forest, but Polish border guards have ordered them not to do so.”

Human rights lawyer

17 Nov 2021 7 2

Philippe Dam

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's shocking to see that the EU is showing solidarity with Poland when the country is letting a humanitarian crisis unfold. These people have been manipulated into this scheme. The EU should be questioning how to help them and not just how to respond to Belarus.”

Human Rights Watch's advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia

17 Nov 2021 3 3

Mariusz Blaszczak

Inserted 2 years ago

“[It is necessary] to prepare for the fact that the situation … will not be resolved quickly. We have to be prepared for months; I hope not years.”

Polish Defence Minister

17 Nov 2021 1 1

Dunja Mijatovic

Inserted 2 years ago

“We need to find a way to de-escalate, to make sure the focus is really to stop the suffering.”

Commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe

16 Nov 2021 3 1

Piotr Skrzypczak

Inserted 2 years ago

“We know that if we go into the zone, we could have very big criminal problems. Transparency is very important in these situations.”

Founder of the human rights organisation Homo Faber Association

13 Nov 2021 2 4

Ricardo Gutiérrez

Inserted 2 years ago

“You don't fight Belarusian disinformation with censorship. On the contrary, journalists should be allowed to document the situation as it is. We cannot accept that a government should encourage this kind of ban on journalistic coverage as soon as a sensitive situation arises. We believe that the state of emergency was introduced mainly to prevent the public from witnessing questionable activities along the country's border with Belarus. Critics have accused the Polish authorities of violating international law by pushing asylum seekers back across the border.”

General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists

13 Nov 2021 7 6

Pavol Szalai

Inserted 2 years ago

“Although it is legitimate for the Polish authorities to declare a state of emergency on the border due to security issues, the imposed press freedom restrictions are arbitrary and disproportionate. The overall ban for journalists to work in the border zone is contrary to Poland's international press freedom commitments which state that press freedom may be restricted only with a legitimate goal and proportionally to the threat in question.”

Head of the European Union and Balkans desk at Reporters without Borders

13 Nov 2021 4 5

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“What we are dealing with is a new type of war. This is a war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition.”

Nytimes

Prime Minister of Poland

11 Nov 2021 3 3

Sea-Watch International

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are shocked and angry about the situation at the border between Belarus and Poland. Once again, the EU is sealing off, creating a humanitarian crisis and unnecessary suffering. A 14-year-old is reported to have frozen to death at the border last night. It was avoidable.”

Twitter

Tweet of Sea-Watch International

11 Nov 2021 5 2

Crystal van Leuwen

Inserted 2 years ago

“People have described, in their own words, as being hit with the butt of a gun and kicked in the ribs. One person described that they had been electrocuted in the neck, with physical injuries which looked like what a Taser would leave. We have also treated people with severe dehydration and hypothermia, and significant mental illnesses including post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as people who have attempted suicide as a result of not knowing how to cope with the situation they have found themselves in. These are people, these are individuals and seeking asylum is not a crime. They have a right to due process and to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Medical emergency manager for Poland/Belarus/Lithuania programme of Doctors Without Borders

11 Nov 2021 6 4

Jens Stoltenberg

Inserted 2 years ago

“Belarus using migrants as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable. NATO stands in solidarity and all our allies in the region.”

Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

09 Nov 2021 3 3

Stanislaw Zaryn

Inserted 2 years ago

“Belarusian security personnel were firing empty shots into the air, simulating dangerous events. We also know the Belarusian authorities are helping migrants to destroy the border barriers. We see how they bring them tools to cut wires... to destroy the fence.”

Spokesperson of the Minister-Special Services Coordinator

09 Nov 2021 3 5

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“This attack which Lukashenka is conducting has its mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin.”

Prime Minister of Poland

09 Nov 2021 4 5

Marta Gorczynska

Inserted 2 years ago

“The conditions in the forests between Poland and Belarus are very harsh, it's an environment where there is very little access to food and water and no access to warm shelter. These are people who are deprived of basic humanitarian assistance. Belarus is responsible for providing these people assistance, and for first of all not using them as political tools to exert pressure on the EU, but also on the other side, Poland … is also obliged to provide these people assistance.”

Human rights lawyer

09 Nov 2021 3 3

Andrzej Duda

Inserted 2 years ago

“We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. There are about 1,000 people there, mostly young men. These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union.”

President of Poland

09 Nov 2021 2 2

Mariusz Kaminski

Inserted 2 years ago

“Tough defense of the border is our priority. We increased the number of Border Guard officers, police officers and soldiers. We are waiting in full readiness.”

Poland Interior Minister

08 Nov 2021 5 3

Piotr Wawrzyk

Inserted 2 years ago

“Belarus wants to cause a major incident, preferably with shots fired and casualties.”

Poland Deputy Foreign Minister

08 Nov 2021 1 2

Piotr Müller

Inserted 2 years ago

“In the whole of Belarus, there are more than 10,000 people who are ready to cross the Polish border.”

Polish government spokesman

08 Nov 2021 2 2

Ursula von der Leyen

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have been concerned about the independence of the judiciary for some time. Judges have seen their immunity being lifted, and have been driven out of office without justification. And this threatens judicial independence, which is a basic pillar of the rule of law. We have taken a number of measures. We continue to have a regular dialogue. But unfortunately, the situation has worsened. And this is not only the commission's opinion. This is what has been confirmed by the European court of justice and the European court of human rights. And now this has culminated in the most recent ruling of the Polish constitutional court.”

President of the European Commission

19 Oct 2021 5 4

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“Were we to agree to the central principle it would mean that the EU ceases to be an association of sovereign states and by fait accompli, the EU is transferred into a centrally governed European state where European institutions can force the so-called provinces to do as the central power wants. This is not what we agreed in the treaties. What is needed is a sovereign decision about sovereign decisions by sovereign member states. So now what we can do is we can agree to all attempts to limit the sovereignty of Poland and we can agree to the creeping expansion of the competences of the European court of law - what we are seeing now is a creeping revolution taking place by way of verdicts of the European court of justice - or we can say no. If you want a supranational state in Europe, why don't you ask and get consent from all the sovereign member states.”

Prime Minister of Poland

19 Oct 2021 6 4

Ursula von der Leyen

Inserted 2 years ago

“Undermining any of these essential pillars puts our European democracy at risk. We cannot let this happen. We will not let this happen. The rule of law and the treaties of the European Union are to be defended with all instruments at our disposal.”

Taipeitimes

President of the European Commission

19 Oct 2021 5 4

Donald Tusk

Inserted 2 years ago

“We know why they want to leave [the EU] … so that they can violate democratic rules with impunity.”

Leader of the Polish main opposition party Civic Platform

10 Oct 2021 4 5

Jean Asselborn

Inserted 2 years ago

“The primacy of European law is essential for the integration of Europe and living together in Europe. If this principle is broken, Europe as we know it, as it has been built with the Rome treaties, will cease to exist.”

Luxembourg’s foreign minister

08 Oct 2021 4 3

Clement Beaune

Inserted 2 years ago

“There is the risk of a de-facto exit of Poland from the EU. This is not a technical or a legal question. This is a highly political topic that adds to a long list of provocations aimed at the EU.”