Gilbert Doctorow<\/p>\n
It may have been a foregone conclusion that Poland under the control of Jaroslaw Kaczynski\u2019s Law and Justice Party \u2014 because of its Euroskeptic and nationalist positions \u2014 would quickly join Viktor Orban\u2019s Hungary as a \u201cbad boy\u201d of the European Union.<\/p>\n
In recent months, especially since the Law and Justice Party\u2019s electoral victory last October, Poland has stood out as a leading naysayer to the E.U.\u2019s calls for sharing the burden of receiving the wave of refugees arriving from Syria and the Middle East. Polish criticism of the open borders policy championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been stinging.<\/p>\n
For instance, before the election, Kaczynski raised alarms about the possibility that the Mideast refugees might carry diseases. \u201cThere are already signs of emergence of diseases that are highly dangerous and have not been seen in Europe for a long time: cholera on the Greek islands, dysentery in Vienna. There is also talk about other, even more severe diseases,\u201d he said<\/u><\/a>, though European health authorities have not reported any widespread outbreak of infectious diseases connected to the migrants.<\/p>\n Poland also has been quick to take a \u201cwe told you so\u201d stand on the New Year\u2019s Eve mass violence and sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by youths from North Africa and the Middle East, including asylum seekers, outside the Cologne main train station in Germany. Polish media cited the five-day blackout in Germany on news about the New Year\u2019s Eve violence to question the autonomy and social responsibility of German journalism.<\/p>\n