Free Republic

The chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation. […] His Law and Justice party has made opposition to LGBT rights a campaign issue, which Kaczynski called “a direct attack on family and children.” Calling the LGBT rights movement “imported,” he said it “actually threatens our identity, our nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state.” …

Caption -- A Syrian refugee family spend the day in the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey, August 10, 2015. (Reuters) Slovakia will take in 200 Christian Syrian migrants instead of Muslims because of a lack of infrastructure -- including a shortage of mosques in the small Eastern European state -- its interior ministry told the BBC on Wednesday. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33986738 Under a European Union relocation scheme to share the burden of thousands of Syrian migrants fleeing the civil war back home, member states will take in 40,000 new arrivals from Italy, Turkey and Greece. But Ivan Metik, an interior...

The government of Slovakia has said it will take in struggling migrants from Syria and other countries under a European Union scheme to share the burden of 40,000 new arrivals to the continent, but stipulated it will only be taking Christians, and not Muslims. "We want to help Europe with the migration issue. We could take 800 Muslims but we don't have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?" interior ministry spokesman Ivan Metik said, arguing that the policy is not discriminatory. "We want to really help Europe...

Slovakia says it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under a EU relocation scheme. The country is due to receive 200 people from camps in Turkey, Italy and Greece under the EU plan to resettle 40,000 new arrivals. Interior ministry spokesman Ivan Metik said Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home. The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) called on countries to take an "inclusive approach" to relocation. But Mr Metik denied the move was discriminatory and said it was intended to ensure community cohesion. The number of migrants at the EU's borders...

"Since Slovakia is a Christian country, we cannot tolerate an influx of 300,000-400,000 Muslim immigrants who would like to start building mosques all over our land and trying to change the nature, culture and values ​​of the state," said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Slovakia is the country that had its commemorative Euro coin depicting two Christian saints, Cyril and Methodius, at first rejected by the European Commission, which told Bratislava it would need to re-design the coins and remove Christian symbols, including halos and a cross-adorned stole. Eventually the Slovakia Euro was issued with halos and crosses. This...

European nations like Hungary and Poland are reasserting their Christian culture, posing a bigger threat to Brussels than Brexit ever will. 2018 is already shaping up to be a difficult year for the European Union. While Brexit machinations dominate the headlines, the biggest threat to the EU comes at a far more fundamental level. In several of the union’s eastern member states, conservative and populist governments are reasserting their national sovereignty. They perceive the EU’s federalist desire for centralized control and common policies across the bloc as threatening their identities. This friction, combined with a reassertion of Christian identity in...

aroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), played down a European Union investigation into recent legislation, saying Poland has to go its own way and not yield to any pressures. The EU began an unprecedented inquiry on Wednesday into whether Poland's new conservative, Eurosceptic government has breached the EU's democratic standards by taking more control of the judiciary and public media. Kaczynski, who holds no formal government post, but is widely believed to be in overall charge of the EU's largest eastern member state, said "there is no sense in being concerned about this". "We have...

The twin brother of Poland's former president, who was killed in a plane crash in Russia this month, says he will run to be elected in his place. Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he would stand in the 20 June presidential election despite his "personal pain", in order to continue his brother's mission. Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in western Russia on 10 April, along with many Polish dignitaries. The two brothers founded the Law and Justice party in 2001. Possible sympathy vote In a statement on the party's website on Monday, Mr Kaczynski said: "Poland is our common,...

Mr Kaczynski is expected to raise two issues souring ties - a gas pipeline that bypasses his country, and WWII-era claims by Germans against Poland. Mr Kaczynski told the German daily Bild he hoped "misunderstandings" between Berlin and Warsaw could be ironed out. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was time to bury wartime grievances. "After all the pain Germany inflicted on Poland during the Nazi era, after all the years of separation, we at last have a chance to take Europe into the future together," she said at the weekend. However, the bitter legacy of the war is still...

The possibility of Poland serving as hub for a U.S. missile defense project is on the agenda for talks between Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and President Bush. Kaczynski was opening his Washington visit with a midday luncheon meeting Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He planned a midafternoon meeting with Bush at the White House. The visit is Kaczynski's first since taking over the government in July. The administration has been grateful for Poland's troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, some 900 Polish soldiers currently command a multinational division south of Baghdad. Poland has around 100...