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Polish leader says other nations envy Trump visit to Warsaw

Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks at the Law and Justice party national congress in Przysucha, Poland, on Saturday, July 1, 2017. Kaczynski said other nations are envious of President Donald Trump’s next week’s visit to Warsaw, and he singled out Britain. He reiterated Poland’s refusal to accept migrants within a European Union relocation plan.in Przysucha, Poland, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (Czarek Sokolowski / Associated Press)
Associated Press
Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks at the Law and Justice party national congress in Przysucha, Poland, on Saturday, July 1, 2017. Kaczynski said other nations are envious of President Donald Trump’s next week’s visit to Warsaw, and he singled out Britain. He reiterated Poland’s refusal to accept migrants within a European Union relocation plan.in Przysucha, Poland, Saturday, July 1, 2017. (Czarek Sokolowski / Associated Press)

WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s leading politician said Saturday that other European nations are envious that U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to visit Warsaw before a summit in Germany with other world leaders.

The ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, singled out Britain as being resentful over Trump’s brief trip to Poland next week before the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

“We have new success, Trump’s visit,” said Kaczynski, a conservative who sets the direction for Poland’s home and foreign policy. “(Others) envy it, the British are attacking us because of it.”

Kaczynski didn’t elaborate on what he could be referring to and government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

British Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump for an official state visit right after his inauguration in January, but a date for the trip has not been scheduled.

Kaczynski’s remarks at a ruling party congress seemed to recall past divisions between ex-communist members of the European Union and western EU nations, when Poland was a staunch U.S. ally in military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under Kaczynski’s party, Poland has criticized EU key members, mainly Germany, and has insisted on having more decision-making powers. At the same time Warsaw says Britain is among its main partners in the EU.

In a speech in the central town of Przysucha, Kaczynski also reiterated that Poland is refusing to go along with an EU plan to relocate Muslim migrants from Italy and Greece. Italy has demanded more help from other EU nations as it copes with tens of thousands of arrivals of desperate migrants on its shores.

Kaczynski argued the anti-migrant policy was saving Poland from a “social catastrophe” and a decline in living standards.

Poland is a predominantly Roman Catholic nation. The conservative government’s stance against Muslim asylum-seekers is increasingly being criticized by Poland’s church leaders.