Why Poland needs to turn to Germany for support during border crisis

Charles Grant, of the Centre for European Reform, suggests it is worse than that. “There is another reason why they are they refusing to allow NGOs and journalists to visit, why they don’t want Frontex. They don’t want people monitoring their behaviour on the frontline.” 

The government is using the border crisis for political advantage, Grant adds. Poland has refused to take in migrants under EU quota schemes devised after the great wave that arrived in Germany in 2015. It is the classic political wedge, to play up against a “soft” opposition. “Liberals are in a mess about it.”

...The CER’s Grant says that Germany holds the key and he is not optimistic, with Angela Merkel due to hand over to Olaf Scholz next month. “Poles are terrified of Merkel’s departure. Whatever the tensions of the past few years, they see her as better than everything to follow. She tried to stop the EU from punishing Poland, by kicking decisions into the long grass. That’s not going to happen any more.”