Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Photo: gosc.pl / EPP)
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Photo: gosc.pl / EPP)
Interviews

“They Want to Watch Poland burn” – Interview with Former TVP World Channel Director Filip Styczynski

On October 15, 2023, elections were held in Poland to elect members of Parliament (Sejm) and the Senate. These elections seemed to be the closest for the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in a long time, but the result was even worse than expected, as we wrote in our forecast.

Despite winning the majority of the votes the conservative government was unable to retain enough seats. Instead, the opposition formed government in an unprecedented union of all the forces of the center-right, center, and left.

In another interview, we also analyzed the consequences of Tusks’ return to power.

To better understand about today’s dramatic events, we spoke with Filip Styczynski, former director of TVP World, English-language channel of Polish state television. TVP World was the first English-language channel in the Central and Eastern European region until its closure.

The dispute over Poland’s state-owned media has shown an example of how the new Tusk government’s project of elite replacement can run.


What is the current situation like in Poland?

The situation is difficult. Donald Tusk’s autocratic government is taking over one institution after another and undermining every element of Poland’s legal order unless it is in line with its will. This also applies to the President of Poland. Already during the campaign, Tusk said that Andrzej Duda is not the real president. It’s thinking under the principle that everything that does not come from his political camp is illegal, and so on.

To make matters worse, all this is taking place with the applause of the Eurocrats and the increasingly brazen actions of the Germans.

Yesterday, Ursula von Der Leyen spoke of a death camp in Poland on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Of course, there were never any death camps in Poland. There were German death camps on the lands of occupied Poland. The erasure of the memory of German crimes while the dismantling of the Polish state by Berlin’s puppets continues. Puppets that are dangerous in their impunity and efforts to close the system.

These people are ready for absolutely anything. What they proved by putting in jail the Law and Justice politicians responsible for the creation of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. They put them in jail despite a presidential pardon. After another pardon, one of them – Mariusz Kaminski – was subjected to torture. Against his will, he was strapped down and forcibly “fed” through a probe. This was explained by the need to save his health due to his hunger strike. Of course, this was a lie. The prison service knew that Kaminski would leave the prison in the next few hours.

We are dealing with typical Soviet methods: violence, sadism, humiliation, and Orwellian newspeak.

Why did Donald Tusk decide to go after Kaminski and Maciej Wasik even though they had the pardon of President Duda?

Because he could. He wanted to show that he would not take prisoners in a political struggle. It also clearly indicated his parliamentary coalition partners’ place in line.

The message was simple – you can be pardoned even by the president, if you stand in my way I will destroy you.

Then there is the international aspect. Poland has become a testing ground for introducing liberal slogans under the cloak of democracy. If it succeeds in Poland, the same methods will begin to be used throughout the collective West to destroy anything that is not pseudo liberal mainstream pap.

Is Tusk looking for an institutional fight to overthrow the figure of Duda?

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think Duda is about to be forcibly overthrown, and most likely later this year, when the most important decisions on refugees and further federalization of the Union under the dictates of the Germans will be made in Brussels.

It is likely that a scenario in which they would put the current Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Holownia, in charge would help cement the political deal even before the Polish presidential campaign begins.

The European Commission said that this was an internal Polish matter and that they had no business meddling. However, the European Commission has meddled in many internal affairs when PiS was in the Polish government. Do you think it is hypocritical on their part?

It’s not even a matter of mere hypocrisy. It’s a matter of cynicism and evil. They want to watch Poland burn.

Dominik Tarczynski, Polish MEP for PiS, declared in a TV program of the former politician Nigel Farage, that Poland was becoming a banana republic, do you agree with him?

Absolutely. I said the same thing at European Conservative, but it’s hard to put it any other way. The only difference is that it’s cold in our country now. One would like to say that winter is coming, but the winter is already underway, and not just in Poland. This is the last wake-up call for the free people in the West.

 

Sergio Velasco
Sergio Velasco is a Spanish political scientist, analyst and political commentator. He is the founder of Filosofia Política, a social media-based enterprise where he details and offers his take on Spanish, Hungarian and Polish political developments. A columnist in Hungarian and Spanish press, he is often invited on television to share his thoughts with the viewers.

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