Donald Tusk, the ex-EU boss who once said Brexiteers deserved a “special place in hell”, has discovered his inner Nigel Farage.
The Polish prime minister has undergone quite the conversion since his days as European Council president during the Brexit years.
Then, he would warn Britain over “cherry-picking” before attacking Vote Leave supporters in 2019 for not having the “sketch of a plan” on how to deliver Brexit.
Now Mr Tusk, 67, has vowed that Poland will “take back control” of its borders and demanded carve-outs from Brussels’ rules, insisting that Warsaw would not accept EU migrant quotas.
On Saturday, Mr Tusk said Poland would temporarily ban migrants from claiming asylum on its soil and declared that he would “demand” the EU “recognise” his decision.
The right to asylum is guaranteed in law, but Mr Tusk is looking to use Thursday’s European Council summit to head off any legal quibbles from Brussels.
It is part of a new migration strategy launched as Russia-allied Belarus continues to funnel illegal migrants to the Polish border in a bid to destabilise Ukraine-backing Poland.
Warsaw “must regain 100 per cent control over who comes to Poland”, said the former Solidarity activist turned centre-Right politician.
Europe’s shift to the Right
It is just over a year since Mr Tusk ousted the Eurosceptic and anti-migrant Law and Justice Party in Poland’s general election.
Law and Justice won the popular vote but fell short of a majority, which Mr Tusk’s broad coalition of parties could reach. Since then, the former scourge of the Brexiteers has been plucking pages from the Leave campaign’s referendum-winning play-book.
He would rather risk being on a collision course with Brussels than be outflanked on the Right by his populist rivals before presidential elections next year.
Mr Tusk can probably get away with it thanks to Brussels’ relief to be rid of Law and Justice. his contacts in the influential European People’s Party, and Poland’s growing influence in the EU.
EU illegal border crossings fell by 42 per cent to 166,000 in the first nine months of this year, compared with 2023.
But attitudes towards migration have hardened among member states, with Rwanda-style offshore processing hubs set to be discussed at the summit after Europe shifted to the Right in a string of elections.
Mr Tusk is not the first big Brexit name to have changed his tune after quitting Brussels to return to a national capital.
Michel Barnier, the former Brexit negotiator, is now prime minister of France and promising a crackdown on illegal migration. He is leading a new Right-wing government that depends on the Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen to survive.
In his doomed run for the French presidency in 2022, Mr Barnier, 73, called for a legal shield from the European courts so his country could not be overruled on deportations. He also supported a referendum on a temporary ban on non-EU migration to France.
It is strange to hear two key EU players in the Brexit drama sounding so much like Mr Farage. When I asked him about it, Mr Barnier simply replied: “The tide has turned.”