Ever since Donald Tusk's left-wing government took office, violent, illegal measures that trample the rule of law have become commonplace. There will be a huge mass demonstration in Warsaw on Thursday, because the people are already fed up with the dictatorial government.

Former Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik also started a hunger strike in prison, after former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski, who was arrested together with him by the police in the presidential palace on Tuesday evening, announced the same intention earlier.

Even before his arrest, Kaminski made a statement addressed to the Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar, in which he called his conviction and illegal deprivation of his seat as an "act of political revenge" for his anti-corruption fight.

That is why I will start a hunger strike from the first day of my imprisonment as a political prisoner, he wrote.

The scene that muddies the rule of law, when former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and former Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik were arrested, also spread on social media.

The two politicians were taken to the police station, where a huge crowd soon gathered. They demanded that the right-wing representatives be released.

The abduction of the right-wing politicians was the last straw for the Polish public, as it had previously caused a huge scandal that after the left-wing Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government were sworn in, they immediately took over the power of Polish public television, public radio and the Polish state media with violent methods. over a news agency. Since then, he has openly threatened Polish President Andrzej Duda, but also Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

“We are facing a power (…) that is outside of Poland, a power that goes so far as to grossly violate the constitution and break the law; with a power that is moving towards a situation in which it will be difficult to speak of it as a legitimate power," Jaroslaw Kaczynski responded to the measure evoking the police state.

"It is a real coup d'état, during which barbarians invade Poland. The nation must wake up, because Poland will either exist or it won't," declared Przemyslaw Czarnek, a PiS representative.

Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a video message uploaded to his social media page that the police are only one step away from knocking on people's doors. "Freedom was cruelly trampled on, today we are increasingly living in an Orwellian world," he said.

In another video, Morawiecki called on the Western world not to passively watch what is happening in Poland.

The case shocked the relatives of the detained politicians: "I only ask one thing, don't forget about them! Because the repressive authorities expect that there will be outrage for two, maximum three days, and then it will die down," Maciej Wasik's wife told the Polish news portal wPolityce.

The son of Mariusz Kaminski, who started the hunger strike, also spoke to the portal, saying: "My father is a hero to me. Already as a boy, he participated in the fight against the communist regime. Even today, many people whose views are far from PiS remember that when courage cost money, my father was on the right side of the barricade. He fought for a free and fair Poland, many people can testify to that. He taught me honesty and love of country. Calling him a criminal is shameful, especially since he was the one who fought against crime in free Poland. He dedicated his whole life to working for Poland. He always fought for his country, never for his own benefit. Donald Tusk and his entourage hate him for his merciless fight against corruption".

Public opinion and the Law and Justice (PiS) party are of the opinion that the two representatives are political prisoners, which has not been the case in Poland for decades. This is revenge for the arrest of Donald Tusk's corrupt friends, they believe.

"The pardon granted to Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik is valid and in accordance with the Polish constitution, and the mandate of representatives of the imprisoned opposition politicians is also valid," Andrzej Duda declared at a press conference on Wednesday. The head of state recalled: Kaminski and Wasik, as well as two other employees of the anti-corruption office (CBA), were pardoned in 2015.

The case was very controversial from the beginning, and a large part of the public found it to be of a political nature, said the president. According to him, the state should give priority protection to those who are involved in the fight against corruption that also affects the highest level of the government, and the CBA managed by Kaminski performed just such tasks at the time.

In connection with the case, the leading analyst of the Center for Fundamental Rights pointed out that the arrest of the two politicians was illegal, because the police took the representatives from the presidential office without its permission.

In a state of law, you cannot simply take police action in the office of the head of state. This ensures that the government cannot threaten the president with the police it controls. However, the rule of law means nothing to Tusk, Levente Szikra wrote in his analysis.

He also said that the left in Hungary was also preparing in 2022 to change the country's system in a way that violates the law, Levente Szikra said.

Momentum's savior was bruised by the events in Warsaw

According to the expert, the telling silence of Brussels is another proof that all rule of law investigations are frivolous, they are only used as a tool of political blackmail against right-wing governments. And if their friends in principle - as opposed to the falsely accused right wing - really destroy the rule of law, they watch it passively.

Original
MTI

Featured Image: Opposition protesters protest at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, where former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and former Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik were arrested during the evening on January 9, 2024. Kaminski and Wasik, the representatives of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, were stripped of their mandate by the current speaker citing a court ruling in a criminal case, which according to President Andrzej Duda is illegal, because he had previously granted the two politicians a presidential pardon. MTI/EPA-PAP/Radek Pietruszka