By Álvaro Peñas
Interview with Marcin Romanowski, Polish deputy minister of Justice, in his office at the Ministry of Justice in Warsaw.
During the migration crisis provoked by the Belarusian government against Poland and the Baltic countries, the actions of far-left activists who have been arrested by damaging the border fence were very striking. What is the situation now at the border?
This situation is no longer possible thanks to the state of emergency decreed by the state. I also think that these groups have realised that they do not have the support of the vast majority of Poles, who are worried about security and about this hybrid war being waged from Lukashenko’s regime. In any case, in this crisis it is very clear that the Polish government’s response is in accordance with our obligations as a member of international law community. This is not a refugee crisis, but a crisis of organised migration and paid for by the Belarusian authorities. I’m more than certain you can understand the difference.
Yes, I have been to Belarus and to think that a migrant can arrive at the border in such a way is inconceivable.
Yes, it is. The only case of refugees we have from Belarus is that of members of the democratic opposition, but not of people from Afghanistan or Iraq. There is the case of Kristina Timanovskaya, who took part in the Tokyo Olympics and who has been received in Poland, or the case of opposition supporters who have taken refuge here or in Lithuania. These are two completely different problems.
In this case Poland even has the support of the European Union.
Exactly, it is kind of unusual. Nevertheless, the immigration problem that affects Europe must be solved, but not in the way it was proposed in 2015. Now many governments do not want to repeat the experience, although large numbers of migrants continue to arrive in Europe and are employed as cheap labour in many countries or to solve the demographic problem. The challenge Europe is facing causes a problem of the clash of civilisations, excessive influence of cultures such as Islam that do not share our values and therefore do not integrate into European society. For us, this wave of immigration in 2015 was a demographic and cultural plan to re-project European society. I remember Germany, for example, the differences twenty years ago and now are huge. The problem of insecurity and other current problems did not exist twenty years ago. We do not want that to happen in Poland.
Insecurity is a growing problem in Germany, France or Spain, where ghettos or ‘no go zones’ are becoming more and more common. This is not the case in Poland.
Poland is a very safe country. We have no crime problems thanks to the government’s policies, and we are not going to change our policy one iota to ensure that this does not change.
In Hungary, a child protection law has been passed, which has been strongly attacked in Europe for alleged “lgbt-phobia”. Have you considered formulating a similar law in Poland, or do you not need one at the moment?
Yes, because the truth is that we have the same problems. We can see it with what has just happened in Europe with this Commission proposal summarised in one sentence: “gay marriage in one country, gay marriage in all countries”. This is all about bypassing signed treaties and imposing gay marriage in Poland and Hungary on the basis of freedom of movement. However, it is clearly specified in the treaties and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights that marriage and family shall be determined in accordance with the national laws, not by EU ideological agenda. We will not give in to these pressures and, of course, we will not add to our civil registry these same-sex unions carried out in other countries. For us, a marriage is the union of a man and a woman.
We have had some problems with accusations of inequality and discrimination against Poland and against some local governments. You may have heard about ‘LGBT-free zones’ which, of course, do not exist. In fact, it was a declaratory response of hundreds of local governments to surrounding gender propaganda. The European Union has tried to blackmail these local governments into changing their minds by using the argument of money and withdrawing European funds. So, in general, we have the same situation as Hungary. Our Constitution says, in Article 18, that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and, at the intention of its authors, we see that this particular provision was made to address the problems we have today. This very precise definition of marriage was made because the members of parliament were aware that we would face this problem in the future.
The general problem of protecting marriage and the family is to face organized ideological attacks from the EU and partially by the NGO’s sector where ties with Soros can be found. Last month a report was published on the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Poland and, in general, the report said that there is no real problem of domestic violence or violence against women The main allegation against Poland is the lack of implementation of gender ideology. From our side they should know that we’ll never decide to root our legal system on a subjective and destructive ideology.
A gender ideology that, according to European President Ursula von der Leyen, is at the heart of European values.
In my opinion these are anti-values, we all know that the true European values are Christian values Now we have another serious problem, precisely because we have forgotten these values and have given a new meaning to fundamental values and human rights. Nowadays, they serve more as some kind of political tool allowing neo-liberal elites to enforce their political agenda in the name of reconstructed and depraved “human rights”, which are in fact their denial.
As part of this recovery of the true meaning of human rights academic initiatives seem to be crucial. I believe the Ministry of Justice is engaged in field via the Academy of Justice.
Indeed, the Academy of Justice has recently broadened its academic programme by opening Law School. The university is responsible of preparation of prospect judicial official’s school. Moreover, in January this year the European Policy Research Institute started its work, which is a very interesting initiative in view of the problem of elites, higher education and research. We have to understand that the neo-Marxist revolution and the ‘Frankfurt School’ have become the leading and exclusively permissible ideology at the universities, so this kind of counter-revolution is part of our task. In Poland we say that “a fish rots from the head down”, i.e. a state falls when its leadership has rotted.
The same problem which has occurred at the universities can be seen in our judiciary. The communist elite and its influence were never removed from the academia or courts., The former communists adapted to current circumstances and now we’re facing lack of freedom of speech and research at universities. Many conservative or Christian students are afraid to express their opinions openly because of the problems they might have in their exams. There were numerous acts of discrimination against conservative professors and researchers i.e. in Katowice, Torun or in Warsaw. The problem is widespread throughout Poland and the reform made two years ago has not solved it. That is why initiatives such as our Academy of Justice (Szkoła Wyższa Wymiary Sprawiedliowści) and other projects are a way to create a real space for freedom of expression and research. It’s crucial in order to oppose the reconstruction of human rights and European values that we’re facing nowadays.
