A recent survey shows overwhelming support for the use of force by the Polish military in situations where migrants attempt to forcibly cross the border.

In the survey conducted by IBRiS, participants were asked whether soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces stationed on the eastern border should be permitted to use firearms in situations where migrants attempt to cross the border forcefully.

The survey, commissioned by the newspaper Rzeczpospolita, revealed that 85.7% of those surveyed support such actions by the military, while 10.7% are opposed, and 3.6% are undecided.

The survey indicates that support for military action against migrants is particularly strong among men overall (88%), men in their 50s (90%), and residents of small towns (91%). These supporters are most often irregular churchgoers (93%) who follow political developments closely and identify their political views as right-leaning (96%). They predominantly voted for the Confederation (94%) or Law and Justice (PiS) (88%) in the last parliamentary elections.

Conversely, among those opposed to the use of weapons by soldiers at the border, voters of the New Left dominate (19%).

The border crisis with Belarus escalated last week when a 21 year-old private of the 1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade died after being stabbed by a migrant during his service at the border. The young man, Mateusz Sitek who was severely wounded in the chest, died after several days in hospital. 

Earlier, it was revealed that in early Spring, the military police had detained three Polish Army soldiers near the Polish-Belarusian border at who had fired warning shots to prevent migrants from trespassing on Polish territory. Two of the soldiers have been charged by the prosecutor’s office with exceeding their authority and endangering the life of another.

Image: X (@Straz_Graniczna)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen