Several thousand people demonstrated in Poland against the center-left government of Donald Tusk. The predominantly older supporters of the national-conservative PiS – until recently in power, now an opposition party – gathered in front of the parliament building in Warsaw on Thursday.
The demonstrators carried Polish flags and posters reading: “This is Poland, not Tuskoland” and “Minister of Culture – Minister of Censorship.” Speaking to the crowd, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski declared: “This is not a Polish government.” In doing so, he repeated the absurd accusation from the election campaign that Tusk was acting on behalf of Germany.
Tusk is rebuilding the media
The “Protest of the Free Poles”, organized by the national conservatives who were voted out in October, was originally intended to target the restructuring of the public media. A few weeks ago, Tusk’s government began restructuring the TVP television channel, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency, which the PiS had controlled during its eight years in power.
However, the conflict over the arrest of two legally convicted PiS politicians shifted the focus of the event. Former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former State Secretary Maciej Wasik were arrested and taken to prison on Tuesday after initially seeking protection from Head of State Andrzej Duda at the presidential palace.
Duda wants to pardon politicians again
The PiS describes the two as “political prisoners”. Duda, who comes from the ranks of the PiS, announced shortly before the demonstration that he would pardon Kaminski and Wasik for the second time.
Source: Krone
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