The people who parade through Warsaw’s old town on Friday afternoon with white and red flags and making as much noise as possible are not fans of the EU. “This is Poland, not Brussels,” a young man wearing a neon yellow safety vest and shorts shouts persistently into a megaphone. An accompanying paramedic distributes apples from a bucket. Such a demo was tiring, and the participants came from many parts of the country. They are demonstrating against the EU’s Green Deal. But also against Donald Tusk and his liberal-conservative government.
The Solidarity trade union, which is close to the PiS party, has again called on people working in agriculture to protest. This time without tractors, but the slogans remain the same. They are directed against EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, drawing attention to financial hardships and the importance of local agriculture. Some men climbed the high steps of the Copernicus Monument and positioned themselves there with the poster “Stop the Tyranny of Tusk.” Brussels, Green Deal, von der Leyen, Tusk – for many here these are apparently one and the same evil.
The outgoing culture minister has radically restructured the PiS’s propaganda channel
After the parliamentary elections in the fall and the local elections in April, which also went quite well for his Civic Platform party, Donald Tusk also wants to win the European elections in June. According to a recent survey, he is currently almost on a par with the PiS party, with a hair-sharp lead. Both around 30 percent. Tusk is now sending three of its ministers into the race as top candidates, and one of its coalition partners is also nominating a minister. All four therefore resigned from their positions on Friday. Tusk appointed four new people to the posts of Interior and Culture as well as to the Ministry of State Assets and the Ministry of Development and Technology.
A pretty big cabinet reshuffle after just five months in power. Tusk explained it on Friday by saying that the ministers had “torn down walls” and now it was time to put things in order. Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, for example, who now wants to enter the European Parliament, had the PiS’s lies and propaganda channel, TVP Info, switched off within days and the leadership of TVP was replaced. A court has now recognized the new supervisory boards. But Sienkiewicz’s actions were controversial and it recently became clear that not all of TVP’s dismissals were entirely justified.
Sienkiewicz’s successor is the long-time director of the renowned Warsaw art gallery Zachęta. Hanna Wróblewska lost her job during the PiS era. Her successor, appointed by the PiS, has already been dismissed on the grounds that he refused international cooperation and did not raise any EU funds.
The new interior minister already has experience with a major threat: espionage
The new Interior Minister takes up his position under great pressure. Tomasz Simoniak was previously responsible for coordinating the secret services and will now also serve as Interior Minister. The extent to which Poland appears to be in the focus of foreign secret services only became clear this week.
On Monday it became known that a judge from the District Administrative Court in Warsaw had fled to neighboring Belarus. There he personally asked the dictator Alexander Lukashenko for “care and protection,” as he told the Belarusian state media. He complained that he felt threatened by the current government because he disagreed with it. Tomasz Szmydt, that’s the man’s name, was appointed as a judge by the PiS government and took part in defaming critical colleagues who rejected PiS’s judicial reform. In his role, he had access to classified information, said Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar. The government now wants to set up a commission to investigate Russian and Belarusian influences in Poland.
In an emotional speech in the Sejm on Thursday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke of “paid traitors” and “stooges of Russia” in the ranks of the PiS party, which ruled Poland between 2005 and 2007 and most recently from 2015 to 2023. The latter had “acted here in Poland under the influence of Russian interests for many, many years.” The Russian and Belarusian influences on the PiS government will now be closely examined, Tusk confirmed.
Interest in the European elections is rather low
Tusk also wants to defeat PiS in the European election campaign. His Civic Platform understands “Europe’s interests better than most other European parties from left to right,” said the party leader at the end of April. Poland knows the dangers for Europe and knows what to do about it. By the dangers, Tusk also means illegal immigration; Tusk repeatedly calls for effective protection of the EU’s external borders. His government rejects the EU asylum compromise as did the previous government – especially because of the redistribution of refugees. Tusk is also pushing for a common EU rearmament and defense strategy.
Among commentators in the Polish press, the candidacy of the four ministers has caused surprise and even rejection, saying that they are breaking promises to change the country for the better, according to the conservative daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita. The aim is apparently to mobilize voters with as familiar faces as possible. Interest is traditionally rather low; in the European elections five years ago, participation was just under 47 percent.
The PiS party has nominated, among others, former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and his State Secretary Maciej Wąsik for the European elections. Both were legally sentenced to prison for abuse of office, but were pardoned by President Andrzej Duda.