There seems to be no end to the political shenanigans that beset this country now over 20 years into its life as a liberal parliamentary democracy. Graham Crawford in the New Poland Express offered this opinion on a recent alarming debate that has followed the murder of two PiS political workers in Lodz:
“What is happening to Polish politicians? A few hours after a Law and Justice (PiS) party worker was shot dead and another had his throat slit, in Lodz last week, one PiS politician shouted at a press conference, “Stop killing us!” This may have been said under the influence of strong emotions, but politicians ought to keep wise counsel in moments of duress. If that cry was emotional, then the
analysis provided by Jaroslaw Kaczynski soon after was delivered with cold calculation. He said that the murder was a political killing and that the blame for the death lies squarely with the aggressive language used by Civic Platform (PO) and is a direct result of a massed attack by the media on PiS.
Now, the fact that Mr Kaczynski should concoct a vicious, illogical argument based on little more than paranoid assertions is no surprise at all. But why on earth are the rest of Poland’s politicians arguing with him on his terms? The majority of them have been sucked into a debate about aggressive language in politics, as if the actions of the deranged Lodz killer were inspired by insults and invective. They weren’t. This kind of cod-psychology is rife, and is extremely stupid. For decades, violence has been blamed on computer games like Doom, in the 80s it was video nasties, and in the 70s my gran thought Tom and Jerry threatened the moral fabric of youth. Well, my dear old gran would be surprised, because despite watching lots of Loony Tunes cartoons in my childhood, I never turned into a homicidal maniac, and listening to the inane ramblings of Mr Kaczynski won’t unhinge me either.”
Kaczynski’s megalomania is captured by his comment at the funeral of the murdered PiS worker Marek Rosiak in Lodz that: “He died for me. He died so that I could continue my work and serve the country the best I can.” However, PiS leader Kaczynski stayed silent about the next story about a member of his party to hit the headlines:
“An MP has come under investigation after she allegedly told policemen to kiss her posterior after they pulled her over for a driving offence. Anna Sikora, a Law and Justice (PiS) member of parliament, apparently got hot under the collar when the officers demanded a PLN 200 fine for driving while talking on a mobile telephone. “The lady started cursing at us, and before we could even open our mouths she was waving around her MP identification,” one of the officers involved told the tabloid
newspaper Super Express. According to the officer, Ms Sikora said: “You can kiss my xxxx. I’m an MP.” Police also claim that she refused to hand over the money, and accused them of trying to trick her. Unhappy with the MP’s behaviour and language the police drew up a report for the prosecutor’s office. “We can confirm that we have received a notice from the police regarding the behaviour of Ms Sikora, and we will provide more details later,” said Katarzyna Szyfer, from the prosecutor’s office in
Zoliborz, the Warsaw suburb where the alleged offence took place. While the police remain adamant that Ms Sikora told them to “kiss her xxxx”, the MP has denied everything. “I wasn’t talking on the phone when driving. I only used the phone when I had a stopped in front of a bank,” said a combative Ms Sikora during an interview for the TVN24 television news channel. “Then I heard a knock on the car window. They didn’t want to identify themselves and were aggressive.” She only produced her MP’s identity documents, she claimed, after they had demanded the fine. Angry with her alleged treatment at the hands of the police she has sent a formal complaint to Andrzej Matejuk, head of
the police, and Andrzej Seremet, the prosecutor general.
This is, apparently, not the first time that the MP has used colourful language in the presence of law-enforcement officers. Back in July when city guards and private security guards cleared traders from a covered market next to Warsaw’s Palace of Culture, Ms Sikora gave them a verbal pummelling, calling them “bastards” and “peasants” and telling them that they should go and “pick asparagus in
Germany”. Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has made no comment on the case.”
Meanwhile the breakaway Platforma MP Janusz Palikot speaking ahead of the demonstrations that took place in major cities around the country organised by his new political movement to protest about the ban on IVF (in-vitro fertilisation condemned by the Catholic church as ‘murder’ of the cells that are discarded thus persuading most politicians here to oppose it) concluded that “The Church has stolen the State ... Bishops should not teach women how to have children.”
It is hard to imagine that life here in Poland will become boring!
Last weekend was local election time in Poland and the rank order of results predicted in the run up to the elections by the New Poland Express were accurate, although the margins predicted by the polls were, as usual not so wide and PiS nationally managed 23% against Platforma’s 32%. The SLD managed 15% as did the Peasants’ party (PSL) the latter’s best ever results. Of course in the local elections there are many minor party and locally independent candidates who take the rest of the votes. In Tychy the PO president was re-elected deservedly as he has greatly enhanced the public spaces and amenities of our town in recent years.
Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party looks set for a comfortable win in Sunday’s local elections with the main opposition party in disarray after a number of its members abandoned ship. As the clock ticks down to the weekend vote, opinion polls give Civic Platform (PO) a commanding 18 percent lead over Law and Justice (PiS) with 38 percent of the vote. To make matters worse for PiS, the polls give it just a slender lead over the third place party, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), while another poll shows that 44 percent of the electorate has a negative opinion of the party. Although Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the PiS leader, can take heart that in the past opinion polls have tended to underestimate the support his party actually enjoys, when the results come in, the broad gap lead PO enjoys over PiS will heap more woe on the embattled party. In the past few weeks a steady trickle of its members have abandoned the PiS colours, and some of them have now formed a new political association: a move that many political commentators have interpreted as the first step to forming a rival political party to PiS. Entitled ‘Poland is the Most Important’ (‘Polska jest najwazniejsza’), its president is Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska - a leading light in the PiS ranks before she was recently expelled. Speaking at a press conference she said that PiS had failed to provide serious opposition to PO.
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