It’s easiest to attack the most vulnerable. Children won’t speak up when their parents are deprived of benefits. Rafał Trzaskowski, whom the Civic Platform sent to fight for the presidential palace, has therefore directly proposed to the government to tighten conditions for Ukrainian families receiving the 800 plus benefit. This is social assistance designated for children under eighteen years of age, paid regardless of family income. Although according to Trzaskowski, Poland helped Ukrainians after the outbreak of the war conflict, he claims that sensible solutions are appropriate today.

“We cannot make mistakes like Western countries, Germany, Sweden, where it simply became profitable to travel for social support,” Trzaskowski said at a meeting with voters in Puńsk on 17 January. He believes that migration must be economically beneficial for Poland, and would grant the 800 plus social support only to those Ukrainians who work, have housing and pay taxes. Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised that the government would urgently address Rafał Trzaskowski’s idea.

The only reasonable thing about this move is an attempt to appeal to supporters of the far-right Confederation candidate Sławomir Mentzen. However, people will find Trzaskowski’s transformation difficult to believe. Until now, he has been positioned on the left wing of the Civic Platform and gained voters primarily among the population of large cities.

Benefits Only for Those Who Deserve Them

Trzaskowski and Tusk’s effort to adapt to the demand of radicals will unfortunately only have an adverse impact on Ukrainians living in Poland. This is certainly not a group that relies on welfare benefits from their neighbours. On the contrary, most war refugees have found work in Poland. Last year’s OECD data shows that 65 percent of them are employed. In the Czech Republic it’s 51 percent, in Slovakia 34 percent, and in Germany only 18 percent.

The thesis about abuse of assistance is also not valid. Without Ukrainian refugees having employment or being self-employed, they do not receive the benefit. Since September last year, the government has also conditioned the receipt of the allowance on children attending Polish schools. Due to this measure, 20,000 Ukrainian schoolchildren have lost their money since the beginning of the school year. Denying the benefit only deepens the vulnerability of single mothers or anyone who cares for someone and is therefore unable to be active in the labour market.

The biggest obstacle preventing entry to the job market is usually language. Ukrainians also often face discrimination, especially worse working conditions and lower wages. Most people also hold less qualified positions than would correspond to their competences. Some work illegally. This is partly due to insufficient legal protection of employees and a significantly deregulated labour market.

It is obvious that Poland should cherish Ukrainian workers. Its population is ageing and companies constantly demand labour, which is in short supply. There is a risk that if the inflammatory campaign continues, Ukrainians will leave Poland either for another country or return home. Politicians should be aware of this in the race for the presidential post.

Bringing Up World War II Against Ukrainians Always Works

Politicians are, however, more concerned with short-term goals, and thus use all opportunities to take a jab at Ukraine and its citizens, just to gain political points.

A brilliant example of such behaviour is Karol Nawrocki. The Law and Justice party candidate stirs up anti-Ukrainian sentiments wherever he goes. The question of exhuming Polish graves in Volhynia reliably arouses passions regardless of the war or current events in Europe. Similarly exploitable is the topic of German war reparations, which is a perennial favourite of the Law and Justice party. One simply needs to follow up. It’s only sad that Nawrocki is a historian who led the Institute of National Remembrance for many years. On the other hand, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric was noticeable even then.

Besides dragging Ukrainians through historical grievances, Nawrocki has also previously populistically assured his supporters that Ukrainians should not be better off in Poland than Poles. He naturally didn’t mention what this claim is based on.

And other statements of his are also controversial. While he believes that the Russian Federation is responsible for the war in Ukraine, in the same breath he adds that it is also due to the mistakes of European elites and their collusion with Putin. As an aside, it’s worth noting that Law and Justice does not plan to replace their candidate. The party’s opinion was not changed even by Nawrocki’s recent statement that the cause of the suspension of American aid to Ukraine is President Zelensky’s insufficient gratitude and his incompetence in international politics.

However, Sławomir Mentzen from the far-right Confederation has gone even further in exploiting tragic moments of Polish-Ukrainian history. The third favourite of the election campaign travelled to Lviv on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to tell Ukrainians from there that it is a Polish city. Before the Second World War, before the border shifted, this was indeed the case. Today, these are artificially provoked territorial disputes.

In Lviv, Mentzen also visited the Russian-bombed museum of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) commander Roman Shukhevych. Directly in front of its ruins, he criticised Ukraine for announcing an international competition for its reconstruction. According to him, the memorial is dedicated to a man who was responsible for the massacre of about 100,000 Poles during the Second World War. Shukhevych indeed bears personal guilt for the killing of Polish civilians from Eastern Galicia and Volhynia. Not only did he agree with it, but as the commander of the UPA, he did nothing to prevent it.

In this respect, he has far greater responsibility than the generally known symbol of Ukrainian independence efforts, Stepan Bandera, who spent most of the war in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Although Shukhevych’s guilt is undeniable, Mentzen’s performance does not contribute to coming to terms with historical reality, and quarrels over old graves are not the most urgent issue that Poland and Ukraine need to address now. That is defence against Russia. Moreover, politicians are usually not experts on historical developments. Polish and Ukrainian historians can certainly manage without them and better. They have been doing so for years.

War Fatigue and Propaganda Go Hand in Hand

Despite the poor security situation in Europe, opposition to Ukraine is increasingly paying off for presidential palace contenders. This is facilitated by the radical transformation of Poles’ relationship with Ukrainians over the past three years. Previous unanimous support has shrunk to the conviction that it is not necessary to do more for them than the bare minimum. There are also more people who would like Ukrainians to leave as soon as the war ends. A February survey by the CBOS company shows that up to 38 percent of respondents do not like Ukrainians. Only 30 percent of respondents expressed sympathy for them.

Anti-Ukrainian sentiments have also strengthened on the Polish internet. On social networks, anti-Ukrainian propaganda gained strength especially with the start of the presidential campaign. In total, last year the organisation Demagog, in cooperation with the Institute for Media Monitoring (Instytut Monitorowania Mediów), identified 327,000 posts directed against Ukrainians. Their number increased by 13 percent compared to the previous year.

None of the above is very surprising. Help for refugees from Ukraine has relied primarily on Polish civil society from the beginning. After three years, exhaustion and frustration inevitably had to set in. The state has been asleep at the wheel here. Ukraine is therefore slowly becoming a surrogate problem in Poland, blamed for everything. The high cost of living, inadequate healthcare or lack of housing are topics too complex for presidential candidates to address. No matter that they would interest voters. Inciting hatred is so much easier.

Aneta Lakomá

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