Polish government

The family are lucky this time - the approaching footsteps are those of volunteer doctors who are helping the migrants stuck in the border area. They give medicines to the mother and walk off.

Morawiecki went to the European Parliament on October 19, where he delivered a speech that escalated the war of words between Warsaw and Brussels over the rule of law, claiming the CJEU was responsible for a "creeping revolution" that is undermining Poland's sovereignty.

Poland said it blocked a bid by hundreds of migrants to illegally enter the country from Belarus on Nov. 8, warning of an "armed" escalation as thousands more massed near the border.

As the latest grim chapter of Europe's migrant crisis unfolded, Washington and Brussels called on Minsk to stop what they described as an orchestrated influx.

Migrants massed on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland: Image: Polish Ministry of Defence

The Polish government called an extraordinary meeting of the crisis management team for 1pm Central Europe Time (CET). At the time of publishing, the standoff on the ground appears to be stable, with no major incidents as yet.

"But the circle was closing in on me and my friends," Belkevich tells BIRN. "The KGB started coming to our houses to checkup on us. Then one day, I got a notification from the police telling me to show up at the station for interrogation that Friday. That's the moment I realised it was time to go."

Former first ladies, Jolanta Kwaśniewska and Anna Komorowska, spoke during the protest in Michałowo, eastern Poland, on October 23, 2021. Photo: Attila Husejnow A woman standing next to an armed border guard, holds a placard that reads "This time a Polish extermination camp" during the protest in Michałowo, eastern Poland, on October 23, 2021. Photo: Attila Husejnow

The heightened tension between Brussels and Warsaw followed the Polish Constitutional Tribunal's ruling on October 7 that key articles of EU Treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution.

Like all 27 EU member states, Poland accepted the supremacy of EU Treaties when it joined back in 2004. Those basic tenets have not changed since. What did change, however, is that, of late, rulings handed down by the CJEU have begun interfering with the Polish government's takeover of the judiciary - a process which has been happening since 2015.

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, sounded the alarm on Thursday (7 October), warning that Poland's ruling party is pushing the country towards 'Polexit'.

Poland's top court on Oct. 7 ruled against the supremacy of EU law in a landmark ruling that could threaten the country's EU funding and even its membership of the bloc.