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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https://www.unison.org.uk/events/stop-tommy-robinson-stop-the-far-right-unite-against-racism-islamophobia-and-antisemitism/
‘Stand Up to Racism has called a unity demonstration against Robinson to show that we will not let the far right take over our streets.
Our message is clear: stop the far right, unity over division.
We’re asking every trade union, faith group, campaign, anti- racist and the thousands who pushed back the far right in August to join our demonstration on 26 October.
We are the many, they are the few. Together we can stop the far right.’
I thought it was a bit quiet on here today.
Who pays for these Unison protestors?
Oh!
‘UNISON is the UK’s largest union, representing over 1.3 million members who work in public services, utilities……
UNISON members can claim tax relief on their subscriptions, and the union has a dispensation with HMRC to reimburse expenses to its members and activists.’
We do!
Sensible words and advice from Liam Tuffs here. The last rally went off with no problems at all and there’s no reason today’s should be any different. It’s predictable that the ones starting any trouble will be the agitators that are planted there, so look out for anyone with face coverings, because it’s highly likely it’ll be them as patriots would have no cause to cover their faces. It’s a family-friendly gathering and celebration, no matter how the opposition haters and MSM choose to twist it. If anyone is going please report back how it went. Looking forward to the footage which will be posted online later. Do Tommy proud!
https://x.com/liamtuffs1/status/1849868692290687161
As with the first and second world war it started slowly and grew
We have actually been in the third world war for some time now, we just haven’t realised it yet!
Troops from around the world are now involved in foreign campaign’s, it can only escalate
If Trump wins he will have to hit the ground running to have any hope of stopping this madness
The absolute lack of leadership in the west is staggering!
I imagine that we will see police in full riot gear inciting the TR supporters to violence so that the MSM will get the desired headlines and Starmer will once again be seen as a hard man castigating the “far right”.
I hope with all my heart that it goes wrong bigtime for the authorities, and that their incompetence and stupidity manifests itself in their failure and the naked exposure of their agents.
Traitors and filth, every one.
The only trouble was in the opposing rally, with arrests made. Strange that, the large number of Police around Tommy’s rally looked pretty stupid.
Local early evening news Look East yesterday headlined with an extensive item on an EV that spontaneously burst into flames on someone’s driveway. I was surprised the item was permitted but good on them.
“Get your Progress Pride poppy”
Never again! F#£k the British legion
Machine guns didn’t differentiate on the battle fields, neither should this so called charity
Indeed. I won’t be buying a poppy this year.
When I see one of their poppy sellers I am going to give them the same message. Although I refuse to support charidees I make an exception for a poppy, usually just a quid. Even thaat’s now finished.
Why is ASI measuring non-dims in £billions instead of in numbers of people.
If the chart I. The useless DT is meant to represent the aggregate wealth of non-dims why not say so.
I assume we have yet another useless journo or ASI “researcher” juvenile so does not understand the units of measurement.
I wonder how many of these non-dims have, in past years, subsidised Labour, its charities and Net Zero projects. Oh how much they must now resent the time they spent rubbing shoulders with Blair, Mandeldlime and their mates.
As investors are not “working people” then why is Starmer so keen to invest our money in the state, which has a very considerable proportion of non-working people? Why are all the welfare scroungers, the non-workers etc. getting our money invested in them? Are Starmer and MPs working people? Simply questions to consider.