According to a survey conducted by SW Research for the daily Rzeczpospolita, nearly three-quarters of Poles declare that they would participate in a referendum regarding illegal migration.
A New Referendum?
In a nationwide referendum held in Poland on October 15, 2023 (the day of the parliamentary elections), one of the four questions posed concerned migration. The exact wording was:
“Do you support the acceptance of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa according to the compulsory relocation mechanism imposed by European bureaucracy?”
At that time, nearly 97% of respondents chose the answer “no”. However, voter turnout in that referendum was very low, failing to reach the required 50% threshold (it was exactly 40.91%), so the result was non-binding.
Now, however, the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), citing a migration crisis on Poland’s western border, is revisiting the idea of holding another referendum. This time, the proposed referendum question would read:
“Do you support rejecting the compulsory acceptance of illegal migrants, which results in risks to personal and economic security?”
Almost three-quarters of those surveyed expressed willingness to participate in such a referendum—50.4% answered “definitely yes,” while another 23.4% said “rather yes.” Only 7.4% of respondents firmly rejected the idea of taking part in this referendum, and another 6.5% were inclined to reject participating as well. A further 12.3% had no opinion on the matter.