Poland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s ruling party wants to ask voters in a referendum whether they support accepting “thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa” as part of a European Union relocation plan, the prime minister said Sunday, as his conservative party seeks to hold onto power in an October parliamentary election.

Mateusz Morawiecki announced the referendum question in a new video published on social media. It indicated that his party, Law and Justice, is seeking to use migration in its election campaign, a tactic that helped it take power in 2015.

WARSAW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Poland will send 2,000 troops to its frontier with Belarus, the deputy interior minister told state-run news agency PAP on Wednesday, twice the number requested by the Border Guard, to stem illegal crossings and maintain stability.

Poland has worried increasingly about the border area since hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish government announced Wednesday that it is planning to deploy an additional 2,000 troops to its border with Belarus, twice the number the Border Guard agency had requested, as fears of illegal migration rise.

In an interview with state news agency PAP, a deputy interior minister, Maciej Wasik announced the decision and accused the Belarusian authorities of organizing illegal migration.

He said migration pressure on the Polish-Belarusian border area is growing, although it cannot compare to the situation two years ago.

WARSAW, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Poland said on Tuesday it was rushing troops to its eastern border after accusing Belarus, Russia's closest ally, of violating its airspace with military helicopters.

The Belarusian military denied any such violation and accused NATO member Poland, one of Ukraine's most fervent backers in its conflict with Russia, of making up the accusation to justify a buildup of its troops.

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko had earlier taunted Poland over the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries near their joint border.

WARSAW, July 29 (Reuters) - A group of a hundred soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.

Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member which has been a full member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance since 1999, has been concerned about the possible spillover of war on to its territory ever since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

WARSAW, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed, and five others were injured after a Cessna plane crashed into an airfield hangar in central Poland on Monday evening.

In the city of Chrcynno, the plane "hit the hangar where people were sheltering," Andrzej Bartkowiak, chief commandant of the State Fire Service in Poland, said on social media, confirming the casualties.

He also said the plane was landing in bad weather, which might have led to the accident.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The United States ambassador held a U.S. flag high as he marched in the yearly Pride parade in Warsaw on Saturday, a clear message of Washington’s opposition to discrimination in a country where LGBTQ+ people are facing an uphill struggle.

“America embraces equality,” Ambassador Mark Brzezinski said, as he marched with more than 30 other members of the U.S. Embassy and alongside representatives from Canada, Austria and other Western countries in the Equality Parade.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s state broadcasting authority has received multiple complaints over the way state media covered a huge anti-government protest over the weekend, an official said Tuesday.

State broadcaster TVP played down the size and significance of the protest led by the main opposition leader, Donald Tusk. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Warsaw, making it possibly the largest demonstration in decades in Poland.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s largest opposition party is leading a march Sunday meant to mobilize voters against the right-wing government, which it accuses of eroding democracy and following Hungary and Turkey down the path to autocracy.

Donald Tusk, the country’s former prime minister, has called on Poles to march with him for the sake of the nation’s future. His party and security officials predicted that tens of thousands of people will join the demonstration.

WARSAW, June 2 (Reuters) - Poland's President Andrzej Duda said on Friday he would propose amendments to a law on undue Russian influence he signed this week, reacting to criticism that it could result in banning opposition politicians from public office.

Duda on Monday signed into law the bill proposed by the ruling party to let a panel investigate whether opposition parties allowed Poland to be unduly influenced by Russia. He said he would send it to the Constitutional Tribunal for review only after it comes into force.