The Polish government wants to persuade European Union member states to end visa-free travel for Georgian citizens. Claiming to be ‘building majority in the EU’ in support of the move, Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticised immigration to the Polish legislature, just prior to a confidence vote in his administration.
The proposal is explicitly political, targeting all Georgians in a country where the traditionalist Georgia Dream party enjoys electoral success:
We are building the necessary majority to limit or suspend visa-free travel with Georgia, among others … Yes, this is also my intention, in the full knowledge that a third of Georgians are people who would very much like to share our values, but we know what the problem is.
It is not just about Georgia—I apologise to Georgians who may feel offended—but in general, I am a strong advocate of restricting visa-free travel from countries which, as in the case of Georgia, no longer respect either the standards regarding authoritarian authorities or from which migration poses a direct threat to law and order in our country or in Europe.
Almost as an afterthought, Tusk also claimed his government was carrying out daily deportations of Georgian criminals.
In contrast, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán hosted his Georgian counterpart Irakli Kobakhidze in Budapest on Wednesday, June 11th, posting on X:
Hungary and Georgia, two sovereign nations refusing to be pawns in someone else’s war. We reject blackmail, resist foreign pressure, and choose a path of growth, energy security, and closer cooperation. Let’s get to work!
Suspending visa-free travel to the EU bloc, in place for Georgians since 2017, would need the backing of a qualified majority of EU member states (i.e. 15 out of 27, representing at least 65% of the bloc’s total population).
Tusk’s efforts fit a wider pattern of Brussels’ leftist-liberal elite attempting to punish the country’s ruling conservative party.
