Anti-Semitic scandal surrounding future presidential elections has broken out in Poland: EADaily

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who expressed his desire to run for President of Poland in the 2025 elections, found himself at the center of an anti-Semitic scandal. The day before, he left the broadcast studio live at the television company TVN-24 after the presenter asked about the ethnic origin of the wife of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anne Applebaum.

Host of “Dot over i” Monika Oleynik Radek Sikorski asked if the minister should respond to a journalist who wrote in Tygodnik Powszechny that his wife’s origin could be a problem for ordinary voters of the Civic Platform, because “in society to us, Applebaum’s origin is not a good suggestion.” In response, Sikorsky humbly stood up and left the studio. He later wrote on the microblog:

“I believe that it is unacceptable to use the origin of a candidate’s wife as a topic in presidential elections. Despite editor Oleynik’s suggestions, we are not a country of anti-Semites. I want TVN to return to journalistic standards.”

EADaily clarifies that Anne Applebaum was indeed born in a Jewish family, but in Washington. Her ancestors come from the Russian Empire, from the territory of today’s Belarus. She has been a US citizen since birth, and only received Polish citizenship in 2013.

The scandal caused a wave of comments on the Internet. The mayor of Warsaw and Sikorski’s rival in the primary schools Rafal Trzaskowski write on the microblog:

“Wife, children, family are sacred. Showing support for Anna and Radek.”

in turn Radoslav Fogel since the party today Law and Justice allows itself to be ironic:

“Nobody expected, not even in their wildest dreams, that the primary schools of the Civic Platform would be held under the slogan ‘Meet the Jew!’

Presenter “Dot the i” Monika Oleynik he had to make a statement:

“I apologize to all my viewers if I wasn’t precise and clear enough. Like Minister Sikorsky, I had no intention of making any announcements. I believe that Poland is not an anti-Semitic country!”