After Emmanuel Macron called Poland’s prime minister a “far right antisemite”, the French ambassador has been summoned to Poland.
These comments were made after Mateusz Morawiecki (Polish prime minister) compared the French president’s phone call with Vladimir Putin with negotiating with Hitler.
Mr Macron has one day to go before France’s presidential election. His main opponent is Marine Le Pen. Poland blamed his words for campaign fervor.
On Thursday, Mr Macron said to Le Parisien that Mr Morawiecki was “far-right antisemite and bans LGBT persons”. He claimed that the Polish PM tried to help Ms Le Pen.
A spokesperson for the Polish government claimed that it was a “lie” that Mr Morawiecki was an antisemite.
Although President Macron didn’t go into details about his claim in 2018, Mr Morawiecki caused controversy when he claimed that there were also “Jewish perpetrators of the Holocaust”.
His government also introduced a law to punish those who blame Poles for Nazi Holocaust crime.
Another law blocks the restitution property that Holocaust victims have seized from the state.
Antisemitism in Poland is a sensitive topic as Hitler used it to murder millions of Jews in notorious death camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Belzec.
Poland has received the most refugees from the Ukraine conflict. Mr Morawiecki criticised Mr Macron’s diplomatic efforts earlier this week, which included multiple calls to Vladimir Putin, despite Western leaders shunning him.
“President Macron. How many times have your negotiations with Putin been successful?” What has your ?… achieved? What would you do if Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot were to negotiate? He said this at a Monday news conference
He also criticized the German chancellor, saying that “Chancellor Scholz Olaf, it’s not the voices German businesses should be heard in Berlin today.” It is the voice and suffering of these innocent children and women.”
France’s Mr Macron is set to face Ms Le Pen within a fortnight, in a second round run-off pitting the most popular candidates against one another.
Although Mr Macron (44) beat Ms Le Pen in 2017 by a huge margin to become France’s youngest President, this time it seems that the contest is closer.
If she wins, Ms Le Pen will become the country’s first female president. A win for Mr Macron would make him first president in 20 years to win another term.