Dispute over visa issuance
Poland accuses Scholz of election campaign interference
September 25, 2023, 11:31 a.m
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Chancellor Scholz is critical of the possible visa scandal in Poland and calls for clarification. Polish Foreign Minister Rau accuses him of wanting to influence the country’s elections. In doing so, he violated the principle of equality between states.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of interfering in internal affairs. The SPD politician’s most recent statements indicated an attempt to influence the current election campaign, the 68-year-old wrote on the short message service X late on Sunday evening.
Poland is currently in the hot phase of the election campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections on October 15th. At an SPD rally in Nuremberg on Saturday, Scholz called for clarification about possible irregularities in the issuance of visas in neighboring Poland with a view to the situation at the borders. “I don’t want Poland to simply wave us through and then have a discussion about our asylum policy afterwards,” he said.
It must be the case “that whoever arrives in Poland is registered there and goes through an asylum procedure there” – and not visas that were somehow distributed in exchange for money would only increase the problem. This should be discussed with the Polish government.
Foreign Minister Rau now emphasized: “The German Chancellor’s powers obviously do not concern proceedings ongoing in Poland.” He accused Scholz of violating the principle of the sovereign equality of states and called on him to refrain from making statements in the future that would damage mutual relations.