Newly elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been busy purging Polish media of those who oppose him – and suddenly the EU is quite relaxed about law-bending in Warsaw. Carson Becker writes about the scandal in the Spectator. Here’s an excerpt.
On the morning of December 20th, riot officers armed with pistols and batons surrounded the headquarters of TVP, Poland’s state broadcaster. Metal barricades were erected, staff vehicles were searched and multiple TV channels were taken off the air. Journalists were locked out of their offices while private security forces in plain clothes attempted to coerce managers into signing letters of resignation.
Leading the purge was Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz (great-grandson of Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz), now the Culture Minister. Despite his literary pedigree, Sienkiewicz is not an obvious choice for the role. He’s a former intelligence colonel who co-ordinated the secret services during Tusk’s first premiership. The evening before the raid, the Sejm – the lower house of Poland’s parliament – passed a non-binding resolution asking the Government to clean up the public media and restore “constitutional order”. Sienkiewicz sent in the troops, without the clear legal authority to do so.
The election did not dislodge Andrzej Duda, Poland’s President, an independent closely aligned with PiS, whose term ends next year. A former lawyer, it’s his job to protect the constitution and wield the veto in certain circumstances. For example, he has said he will veto a spending bill over his concerns about the media crackdown, calling it “a blatant violation of the constitution and the principles of a democratic state of law”. Sienkiewicz responded by announcing that he would liquidate the entire network. The same day, TVP World, the English-language news channel, announced that its operations had been suspended. Several high-ranking employees including Filip Styczynski, TVP World’s director, were relieved of their duties, but not sacked. Legally, editors and directors can only be fired by the National Media Council, which was set up by PiS in 2016 and is protected by the powers of the president. Tusk and his three-party coalition Government are trying to circumvent the council, whose term of office runs until 2028.
Yet not a word now comes from the EU Commission, formerly often warning PiS that it “will not hesitate to take action in case of non-compliance with EU law”. Even the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, no fan of PiS, has said the Government’s takeover of public media “raises serious legal doubts” and may violate Council of Europe standards. But the EU has said nothing.
Anyone would think that, to the EU, the rule of law just means “doing things our way”.
Worth reading in full.
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“Newly elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk ….”
His party came second. That is the problem with PR.
Sounds like they are using Nikki Hayley’s PR
They’ve got a leftist coalition. More communists in Poland than we thought. This virus needs destroying.
Tusk is bitching for the EU and Soros. He is bought and paid for. Far too many Poles can’t see this. They will do when the rainbow flags go up, wokery abounds, DEI infiltrates every organ of the nation, the Euro is rolled out and debt is all around.
I wonder how long it will be before people start fleeing to the Eastern Block, a reverse of pre 9th November 1989. Happily there is no wall; yet.
It is the problem with Poland’s version of PR if I might be pedantic or more accurate – depending on your pov…
Could someone perhaps enlighten me about the point of this article? Some Polish prime minister did something. His political opponents are opposed to it. This Polish prime minister served as EU something before … therefore … waffle on about the evil EU is about everything I managed to get from it, ie, there doesn’t seem to be a connection between the reported event and the second half of the article.
Donald Tusk is clearly breaking EU law. He’s rounding up the press but the EU puppets stay stchum.
Democracy in action.
Whatever he’s doing, he’s certainly not breaking EU law. Some people, specifically, members of opposition parties in Poland, claim that he’s breaking Polish laws introduced by the previous government. That would be something for Polish courts to sort out.
In the past, the same people complained that the EU complained about those Polish laws because the EU was said to have no business dealing with domestic politics in Poland. Now, they’re complaining that the EU doesn’t try to interfere with domestic politics of the Polish government. Aha. Consider trying to make up your mind about that, guys.
…
Media freedom in the European Union is a fundamental right that applies to all member states of the European Union and its citizens, as defined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
This doesn’t apply here and you know that yourself.
As far as I could determine, many people in Poland are convinced that this public broadcaster is not fullfilling its legal obligations. I have no idea whether or not this true (and to be honest, I couldn’t care less). But I recognize the Orange man bad!-style argument here I’ve outlined above. And arguing in this way is never sensible, no matter if it them or us.
So you know what I know (you don’t, of course) but you have a limited understanding of the situation in Poland. This is a pretty flimsy foundation for your even flimsier assertions.
I’m sorry for assuming that you must be aware that freedom of the media doesn’t apply to a situation where a public broadcaster is said to be in violation of its charter. Whether or not that’s true is besides the point. That’s part of the Polish domestic policy struggle and the Poles need to sort that out among themselves.
I’d be behind a roundup and closedown of the BBC communists.
I wouldn’t close them down that would be anti free speech. What I would do is take their taxpayer’s funding away and let market forces do their work.
A government on the continent of Europe shutting down the national broadcaster by force – as you say, let the Polish Courts deal with it with no interference from Tusk otherwise there will be an especial place in hell for the closet dictator…..elected by a democratic open process.
I wonder if he has received messages and support for his actions from elsewhere on the continent of Europe….
It’s highlighting how for globalists the law is interpreted for friends applied to enemies. For us in England this is something Henry the second gave us, equal application of law, it’s what his whole quarrel with Beckett was about actually he objected ti the clergy having their own court.
That’s interesting I’ll have to watch the film again.
That point is missed on a lot of people that the clerics and Becket wanted control over the peoples mind, body, soul, and wallet, supreme law above the Sovereign and state. It is what you get when the notion of God’s representative on Earth, is accompanied by the lust for power. Give me a pantheon any day or nothing at all.
Globalist, EU Fanboy. Suffice to say, I don’t like him. More context in this interview with Polish opposition MP and leader of the National Movement;
”And how do you assess the attitude of Brussels? It is known that the Confederation, as a sovereignist party, is not in favor of the European Union authorities meddling in Poland’s internal affairs. What is striking, however, is the difference in Brussels’ approach to these issues. When Law and Justice took over the public media in 2016 under a law they had duly passed in parliament, there was a great uproar and finger-pointing at Poland. Today, when the same media have been forcefully taken over by the left-liberal government in clear violation of the law in force in Poland, there is complete silence and even tacit support from the European Commission.”
”This question should be answered in a slightly broader context. Foreign actors in general, namely, first of all, Brussels and the EU institutions, secondly, Washington and the U.S. Department of State, which also spoke out on the rule of law in Poland, thirdly, the embassies of other European countries, which allowed themselves to make various statements to the Polish authorities, lecturing them on democratic values and tolerance alongside other so-called European values, as well as, fourthly, the international media.
All these actors now avoid any evaluation of the new government’s actions.
It is obvious to me that this is due to the double standards of the European Union, Western countries, and the international media, where a government with a more conservative, right-wing, patriotic, or sovereignist message will always be stigmatized and met with very harsh criticism, no matter what it does. On the other hand, if a centrist government does similar things or even harsher things, everyone just keeps silent and refrains from making comments.
I am sure that those who observe the situation in Poland see what is happening and have their assessment of the situation, but for political reasons, they do not express it.
It is a well-known fact that Donald Tusk is a friend of the EU elite. He is perceived as the Eurocrats’ man in Poland.”
https://rmx.news/poland/exclusive-donald-tusk-is-creating-legal-and-judicial-anarchy-in-poland-warns-confederation-co-leader-and-sejm-deputy-speaker-krzysztof-bosak/
Yup he was the one that said “There should be a special place in hell for those that facilitated Brexit”….I suppose that goes for us proles who voted for Brexit too!
“Anyone would think that, to the EU, the rule of law just means “doing things our way”.
A point I have been making for months.
It’s all a bit like the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty and the revised International Health Regulations which we are constantly told are “legally binding” but without the supplement of “if it suits.”
Our government is no different and readily ignores and or distorts the laws of the land when they are told to do so by the Davos Deviants.
The Khant is exercising powers he doesn’t have in Londonistan but Central government claims it cannot stop him which of course is utter BS.
The MHRA is acting illegally regarding the injections laughably referred to as “vaccines” but nobody has been arrested.
The government mandated C1984 injections for Care Home Workers and tried it on NHS staff in a clear breach of the Nuremberg Code.
Young white girls are being systematically raped by gangs of predominantly Pakistani men and few if any are arrested let alone ejected from the country.
Local authorities sign up to the 100 Cities project without telling their constituents and for which they have no mandate but apparently no laws have been broken.
Thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants invade the country but apparently our government can do nothing.
Most of the judiciary is corrupt and a fair trial is down to luck and nothing else.
Other examples of the non-existent Rule of law are available but I don’t want to bore the DS readership with further fascist fables.
Let’s be honest – the Rule of Law no longer exists – except when it suits the government to use it to further some corrupt agenda.
The Rule of Law – do me a favour.
Agreed, hux, and there’s examples of this farcical ‘Rule of Law’ being nothing but a joke all over Europe. Here’s one from Sweden. I’d resign if I was one of the officers, because this isn’t what you sign up for, to get stabbed in the back by the judicial system for risking your personal safety whilst upholding the law and protecting the public. I also would refuse to pay a cent. I hope they win their appeal;
”In a shocking twist, five police officers are being forced to pay a fine to a Syrian migrant who was convicted for severely injuring one of them during riots related to a Quran burning during Easter of 2022.
The officers will have to pay out a total of 12,650 Swedish crowns (€1,122) from their own pockets to the 45-year-old convicted Syrian who has been sentenced to two years and seven months for his role in the riots.
The officers have reacted with near disbelief over the outcome of the case.
“It feels like something has gone terribly wrong in the legal system here. We are there and doing our job, yet individual police officers must be forced to pay out of their own pockets to people who really wanted us dead,” says Aleksandar Jeremic, who is a group leader in a civil suit involving the Botkyrka local police area and is now one of the five police officers ordered to pay court costs to the foreign national, according to Danish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
The case stems from the Quran riots, which began in Örebro’s city park over Easter weekend in 2022. They were preceded by far-right activist Rasmus Paluden burning a Quran in Sweden, leading to the violent riots that lasted several days.”
https://rmx.news/crime/it-feels-like-something-has-gone-terribly-wrong-5-swedish-police-officers-forced-to-pay-fine-to-convicted-syrian-migrant-who-brutally-attacked-them-during-quran-burning-riots/
I knew people could sleepwalk but not a whole continent. —–Europe as a bunch of cultures is FINISHED. So glad I won’t be here to see Sharia law deciding what skirts our kids cannot wear and what pop tunes they cannot have on their headphones.
Judging from the article, the involved policemen where trying to get damage payments from the convict by bringing a civil case against him. The supreme court of the country ruled that they’re not entitled to private damage payments when getting hurt during their work as policemen. Hence, they withdrew their claims in the civil case. And because of this, they now have to pay the legal costs of the other party. That this other party happens to be the guy who attacked when they were acting in their official function is of no concern here.
It may be of no concern to you, but it is of deep concern to every fair-minded person who supports the rule of law and who wants the police to be able to enforce that law without fear.
Bloody well said.
The policemen in question sought private damage payments from an individual which attacked them in the course of them doing their duty. That’s something they weren’t entitled to. Hence, they had to drop the civil suit they brought against this guy. And because of this, they now have to pay his legal costs. This issue is legally entirely unrelated to the crime.
This blinkered approach RW is part of the problem. This is where a decent ie not corrupt judge could rightly employ some latitude. The fact that he has refused to do so shows up his intellectual inadequacies. Law, or rather The Law revolves around the principle of ‘reasonableness,’ and there is no way that the judge could be said to have acted reasonably in this instance.
It is difficult not to conclude that the judge has acted in such a way as guarantees to enrage the ordinary, reasonable minded Swedish citizen. I wonder why or under whose instructions.
There’s no blinkered approach: Some party A lost a civil lawsuit against some party B. Hence, party A has to pay the legal costs. That’s all which happened here.
I believe this example more than proves my point – a corrupt judge and legal processes that in no way follow the rule of law or natural justice.
To fine a police officer for doing his job – unbelievable.
Thanks Mogs
Yep about sums it up.
Chunt
The EUSSR is populated by communists who went undercover when Soviet and eastern European communism collapsed in 1989. They have bided their time within the institutions of the EUSSR and are now re-emerging. Tusk is a filthy communist.
The west should have put the communist leaders of Eastern Europe on trial after 1989. Public exposure of the vile crimes of communism/Marxism has never happened. They have, like many, many nazis, got away with their crimes. And many of our young people seem to think communism is quite a good idea. Brain dead.
We will need to watch Stalin Starmer and his party as they try to shut down debate and exposure of the evils of socialism. Never forget that Labour are just communists in posh suits.
“Never forget that Labour are just communists in posh suits.”
Spot on, although they’re not even that posh sometimes.
And the irony is that he escaped Communism and fled to the West as a kid.
I’d expect no less from Tusk or the EU.
While I’d like to see one or two minor parties over here getting a foothold to challenge Labour and the Tories, this is what happens when minor parties band together to block the winning party. That isn’t democracy.
FPTP isn’t a great system, but I guess it’s better than the alternative.
If someone looks like a thug, talks like a thug and behaves like a thug …. then he’s a thug.
The Poles should have known better than to vote for a thug.
“Anyone would think that, to the EU, the rule of law just means “doing things our way”.”
It has always meant that.
And if they don’t like a referendum result, they will make you vote again….France, Ireland etc.