Several tens of thousands of supporters of the national conservative opposition protested in front of the parliament in Warsaw on Thursday against the government of the new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The protesters, most of whom were elderly, held Polish flags and placards reading “This is Poland, not Tusk’s country”. The leader of the national conservative party “Law and Justice” (PiS) Jaroslav Kaczynski, addressing the demonstrators, declared that “this is not the Polish government”.
PiS has often accused former European Council President Tusk, who has promised to improve relations with Brussels, of acting in Germany’s interests.
In the Polish parliamentary elections on October 15, the opposition led by Tusk won an absolute majority. PiS, which was in power since 2015, lost its majority in the parliament in these elections.
The demonstration, which was organized by PiS, was initially directed against the restructuring of the public media system. Tusk’s government has started to reorganize the television channel TVP, Polish Radio and the news agency PAP, which until now were actually under the control of PiS.
However, after the arrest of the former interior minister and his secretary, the direction of the demonstration changed.
Former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminskis and his former State Secretary Macej Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison in December for abuse of office. On Tuesday, when police were about to take them to prison, the two politicians from the national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party took refuge in the presidential palace, but were eventually detained.
The detention of Kaminski and Wasik has brought Poland to the brink of a constitutional crisis. Tusk on Tuesday accused the president of hiding the convicts and warned that Duda and Kaczynski would be prosecuted for sabotaging the constitution and breaking the law.
Shortly before the start of the demonstration, Duda announced that he would pardon Kaminski and Vasika.
PiS calls the two political prisoners, and they went on hunger strike on Wednesday – their first day in prison.
Already in March 2015, Kaminski was sentenced to three years in prison for abuse of office, but he appealed the verdict. The reason for the conviction was the scandal discovered in 2007, in which Kamiński’s office deliberately organized a corruption case in order to discredit the then Minister of Agriculture Andrzej Leper. Vasik was also sentenced to three years in prison for abuse of office.
After “Law and Justice” came to power in the fall of 2015, President Andrzej Duda pardoned Vasika and Kamiński with a controversial decision, although their appeals had not yet been considered. Therefore, soon after, the case was closed, and Kaminski was appointed Minister of the Interior.
Last June, the Supreme Court overturned their pardon, so they had to stand trial again.
Kaczynski called on the protesters to hold a short demonstration in front of the prisons where Kaminski and Vasik are held.
2024-01-11 19:44:10
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