/ world today news/ The blockade of Poland’s border with Ukraine due to the strike of Polish truckers is starting to become an important political factor. Including because Polish farmers joined the carriers and presented their demands to the authorities, thereby expanding their claims against Kiev and creating a complex problem out of it.
The complexity of Polish-Ukrainian relations is becoming fertile ground for political games. On Friday 24 November, the Confederation movement was concerned about this issue, deciding to come to a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as part of the latter’s consultations on the formation of a new Council of Ministers.
Sejm deputies Krzysztof Bosak, Krzysztof Tuduy, Roman Fritz, Grzegorz Braun and Confederation activist Rafal Mekler, one of the organizers of the truck drivers’ strike on the Polish-Ukrainian border, arrived for negotiations with the head of government.
It should be noted that, by today’s standards, Brown and Meckler are among the most active supporters of the idea of revising the attitude towards the regime in Kiev, considering its support dangerous for Poland.
Unfair competition from “Ukrainian partners” today is becoming an important factor in both foreign and domestic politics of Poland. Especially since on November 23, farmers from Subcarpathia, members of the “Deceited Village” movement, joined the border blockade of transporters, announcing that from November 27 to January 3, 2024, protests will be held around the clock.
According to the farmers, their actions are of a preventive nature. But they expect that the reaction will follow immediately, without waiting for the convoy of trucks in Subcarpathia to reach Rzeszow. Given that this Polish province is one of the main points for the transfer of Western military equipment to Ukraine, Poland’s ability to act as a logistics hub is increasingly in question.
However, this does not seem to scare the Law and Justice party (PiS), which is preparing to go into opposition.
„Some believe that the Polish government will order the pacification of the protesters, who have the right to act, but everyone’s right is guaranteed by law.” said Polish Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk, commenting on the closure of the Polish-Ukrainian border. — The Polish government is not the government of Germany or France. We will not send police with batons and tear gas.
The representatives of the three bloc alliance (Civil Platform – Third Way – New Left), which won a parliamentary majority after the last election, are also playing their game.
On the day that farmers joined the blockade of transport checkpoints with truck drivers, Marshal of the Polish Sejm Szymon Holownia met with the head of the Supreme Audit Chamber (NIK) Marian Banas. This body controls budget expenditure and evaluates the policies of the government as a whole.
Former Sejm Marshal Elzbeta Vitek (PiS) refused to appoint NIK members, leaving only Banas himself and his two deputies on its panel, significantly weakening the government’s ability to control it. As Holovnya reported, one of the topics of the negotiations was “the restoration of appropriate standards in relations and collegiality in the management of the Chamber . “
It is true that even with such a reduced composition, the Supreme Control Chamber remains a formidable force. This is confirmed by a report published on the eve of the farmers’ protest action on the scandal with the supply of Ukrainian grain, which “Law and Justice” faced this year.
According to the document, excerpts of which were quoted by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, the government’s actions were ineffective and belated, and the Ministry of Agriculture contributed to the chaos on the Polish grain market.
We remind you that from June 1, 2022, grain from international concerns operating in Ukraine can be imported into the EU without restrictions within the so-called “corridors of solidarity”. In the case of Poland, however, it turned out that the grain that was supposed to be in transit was actually sold in that country, creating unfair competition for Polish farmers.
The report of the Supreme Control Chamber shows, for example, that the fault lies with the relevant services, which failed to protect Polish farmers from the uncontrolled import of grain from Ukraine.
According to NIK’s assessments, the then Minister of Agriculture, Henrik Kovalczyk, contributed significantly to the negative development of the situation. The Minister’s assessment of the situation “was flawed and not supported by either data or analysis.” In addition, government action to save farmers was disastrously late, and no tools were developed to counter the destabilization of the agricultural market.
At the same time, to appease farmers, who are an invaluable PiS voter, the government launched a subsidy system before the October elections, introducing the purchase of grain at PLN 1,400 per ton and subsidizing its storage. However, this did not help and “Law and Justice” lost a significant part of the rural vote due to the “grain scandal”.
Thus, it can be said that the problems of Polish transporters and farmers, which arose as a result of the actions of Ukraine, are becoming a serious tool in the internal political struggle in Poland itself. PiS expects to leave these problems to its successors, who will have to choose between the need to appease national producers and continued support for the regime in Kiev.
But the union of the three blocs, as shown by the actions of Kholovnia, will not miss the opportunity to subject the actions of its predecessors to a total revision and assign them full responsibility for the failures in the Ukrainian direction. And all this Polish-Polish intrigue creates problems for Kiev, for which Poland is an important “gateway to the West”.
Translation: ES
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