Polish lawmaker Dominik Tarczyński has stuck to his guns following a frank interview on the migrant crisis with Cathy Newman, insisting his government will not take a single illegal migrant because that is what his party promised before the elections.

The Channel 4 presenter, who became infamous online following her viral interview with Canadian scholar Jordan Peterson, had demanded to know how many “refugees” Poland had taken, to which the Law and Justice Party (PiS) politician replied: “Zero.”

“And you’re proud of that?” Newman demanded.

“If you are asking me about Muslim illegal immigrants, none, not even one, will come to Poland,” Tarczyński repeated.

“We took over two million Ukrainians — who are working, who are peaceful — in Poland. We will not receive even one Muslim, because this is what we promised… this is why our government was elected; this is why Poland is so safe, this is why we have not had even one terror attack,” he said.

“We can be called ‘populists’, ‘nationalists’, ‘racists’, I don’t care — I care about my family, and about my country.”

‘Europe, Rise from Your Knees or You’ll Be Crying over Your Children Every Day’ https://t.co/kDBpv9rMrm — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 26, 2017

Breitbart London contacted the Polish lawmaker for his thoughts on the explosive interview, asking if he still felt confident that it was Poland’s strategy on the migrant crisis which had spared his country from the radical Islamic terror attacks which have plagued countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Spain.

Mr Tarczyński insisted that “strategy” did not come into it and that the Law and Justice government’s decision to refuse migrants from the Middle East and North Africa came down to something much more simple.

“It hasn’t been about strategy for us, but simply keeping our promises to the Polish people,” he explained.

“We promised to say no to illegal immigrants in Poland before the elections in 2015, and we have kept our promises to the voters who elected us because that’s what they expected,” he said.

“It’s incredible that these people in the European media and the European Commission — who are unelected, by the way — can’t understand this. We made a promise to the people, and we have a democratic responsibility to keep it.”

Poland Tells EU: We’ll Take Immigrants from Europe – But Not North Africa and the Middle East https://t.co/Ad36jwZmUi — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 8, 2017

Mr Tarczyński described how he had visited genuine refugees in the Lebanese camps neighbouring Syria several times — “unlike many of Poland’s critics” — and that they made it clear to them that genuinely needy refugees simply could not afford to pay people-smugglers to make the long journey through the Near East and South-Eastern Europe to the welfare states of North-West Europe.

He added that, as the migrant crisis expanded to take in sub-Saharan Africans as well as the Middle-Easterners, open borders were simply not a viable solution to the problem.

“There are a billion people in Africa,” he said matter of factly. “In the European Union, we have what, 500 million? How many Africans can we take?” he asked.

“Don’t misunderstand me, we want to help the people who are suffering, but we need to help them where they are, at home. It’s not about being racist, nationalist — it’s about adopting a logical, rational system.”

Poland: EU Will Not ‘Impose a Social Catastrophe’ with Migrant Quotas https://t.co/dAlcrPH05O — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 3, 2017

Mr Tarczyński was clear that EU proposals to alleviate the migrant crisis by attempting to impose compulsory migrant quotas across the continent was not sustainable, not least because migrants seeking benefits in countries like Germany and Sweden would not stay in less generous countries.

He described how the Romanians — who voted against migrant redistribution but agreed to join the quota system after it was forced through — arranged a ministerial delegation to meet the first busload they were due to receive.

“The migrants did not realise they were being brought to Romania, and when they found out they ran away. The minister was left to greet empty buses,” he recalled.

“Can you believe it?”

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery