Report: Polish Minister Calls British PM Incompetent on EU
Poland's foreign minister allegedly said British Prime Minister David Cameron's concessions to eurosceptics showed "incompetence in EU affairs", according to the latest leak in a high-profile bugging scandal that has rocked Warsaw.
The Polish news magazine behind the report has for days been releasing juicy exchanges between top Polish politicians -- including a U.S. snub and controversial central bank talks -- that it said were caught on secret recordings it had obtained.
The Wprost magazine's latest leak features Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and ex-finance minister Jacek Rostowski -- both pro-Europeans with strong British ties -- blasting Cameron during a fancy meal in Warsaw earlier this year.
"You know what, his whole strategy of tossing them (euroskeptics) a bone to satisfy them has, just as I predicted, turned against him," Sikorski purportedly said, according a transcript of the recording released Monday.
Cameron has tried hard to burnish his eurosceptic credentials to placate his rebellious Conservative Party and counter the resurgent UK Independence Party (UKIP), which has pledged to yank Britain out of the European Union and do more to limit immigration.
He has notably proposed banning EU migrants from claiming benefits and has pledged to hold a referendum on EU membership by 2017 provided his party wins next year's general election.
"He should have said 'fuck off' and tried to convince people and isolate the others (euroskeptics). But instead, he provided them with the means to humiliate him," Sikorski allegedly told Rostowski.
"It's either a very poorly thought-out move or, not for the first time, his incompetence in EU affairs."
Rostowski, who resigned as finance minister last November, voiced concern that Cameron's policies would sink his party, according to Wprost.
"I think he'll lose these elections. Britain will exit (the EU). But at the same time they'll maintain open borders. Not for beggars, but open in some sense," the British-born Pole allegedly said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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