Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has accused a former defense minister of undermining the Polish Army by allegedly surrounding himself with people who may have promoted a pro-Russian agenda.
Tusk launched the attack on Antoni Macierewicz during a television interview in which he announced that nine people had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out, or organizing, sabotage operations on behalf of Russia.
It also comes as the Polish government looks to revive a special commission that will look into Russian influence.
The prime minister added that the “noose of information” was tightening around the ex-defense minister, implying that the authorities were already building a case against him as they investigate the extent of apparent Russian influence on Polish affairs in recent years.
Macierewicz served as defense minister from 2015-2018 in the Law and Justice government, and is known as being a close and loyal associate of Jaroslaw Kaczyński, the Law and Justice leader who is also Tusk’s bitter political opponent.
Rounding on Macierewicz’s time as defense minister, Tusk said: “There were people operating in Macierewicz’s circle who actually disarmed the Polish Army in some sense, and who damaged the Polish military intelligence services.”
“It is something really ghastly that this man [Macierewicz- TVP World] has had such an impact on what has been happening in Poland over the past dozen years or so,” he added.
Macierewicz’s people
Tusk named Michał Dworczyk, a former deputy defense minister and later head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, as one of the individuals from Macierewicz’s circle who may have pushed the Russian agenda.
Others, he added, were Leszek Sykulski, a geopolitics expert and columnist, and Col. Krzysztof Gaj, who worked as an advisor in the prime minister’s office for several years.
“Sykulski, a well-known promoter of Putinist policies in Poland, makes no secret of this,” said Tusk. “He is the author of political speeches against Ukraine and in favor of Russia. Col. Gaj... The notorious Gaj was in charge of personnel in the General Staff, and this was a man who publicly spoke on the side of Russia and against Ukraine, and yet he was promoted.”
Tusk stipulated, however, that it is not his job to examine what was the result of sloppiness, incompetence, stupidity, and what is conscious political activity.
Responding to the allegations, which come as Poland prepares for what is expected to be a fraught and divisive campaign for the European Parliament elections on June 6, Macierewicz launched an attack on the prime minister.
Tusk, he claimed, had been attacking him since 1992 and had, in a previous stint as prime minister, had made the army “dependent on the Russian Federation”.
Kaczyński’s right hand
Macierewicz rose to prominence in the early 1990s as a stalwart supporter of vetting candidates for key public positions with regard to their communist-regime affiliations.
Yet, in 2018, Kaczyński “sacrificed” him and accepted his removal from his job as defense minister seat to avoid widening a rift between Law and Justice and President Andrzej Duda.
According to Newsweek, Macierewicz himself was a symbol of insubordination who never recognized that Duda, as head of state, outranked him when it came to control of the army.
Their dispute held up promotions, undermined trust in state structures, and the decay of the military, the magazine added.
The tit-for-tat allegations could further heat the political waters ahead of June’s European elections.
Any accusations of ties with Russia leveled against key figures in Law and Justice could tarnish the party’s image and influence its prospects in the elections. In a recent opinion poll conducted by Opinia24, Tusk’s Civic Coalition holds a slight lead over its main rival.
It also comes as the Polish government looks to revive a special commission that will look into Russian influence.
The prime minister added that the “noose of information” was tightening around the ex-defense minister, implying that the authorities were already building a case against him as they investigate the extent of apparent Russian influence on Polish affairs in recent years.
Macierewicz served as defense minister from 2015-2018 in the Law and Justice government, and is known as being a close and loyal associate of Jaroslaw Kaczyński, the Law and Justice leader who is also Tusk’s bitter political opponent.
Rounding on Macierewicz’s time as defense minister, Tusk said: “There were people operating in Macierewicz’s circle who actually disarmed the Polish Army in some sense, and who damaged the Polish military intelligence services.”
“It is something really ghastly that this man [Macierewicz- TVP World] has had such an impact on what has been happening in Poland over the past dozen years or so,” he added.
Macierewicz’s people
Tusk named Michał Dworczyk, a former deputy defense minister and later head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, as one of the individuals from Macierewicz’s circle who may have pushed the Russian agenda.
Others, he added, were Leszek Sykulski, a geopolitics expert and columnist, and Col. Krzysztof Gaj, who worked as an advisor in the prime minister’s office for several years.
“Sykulski, a well-known promoter of Putinist policies in Poland, makes no secret of this,” said Tusk. “He is the author of political speeches against Ukraine and in favor of Russia. Col. Gaj... The notorious Gaj was in charge of personnel in the General Staff, and this was a man who publicly spoke on the side of Russia and against Ukraine, and yet he was promoted.”
Tusk stipulated, however, that it is not his job to examine what was the result of sloppiness, incompetence, stupidity, and what is conscious political activity.
Responding to the allegations, which come as Poland prepares for what is expected to be a fraught and divisive campaign for the European Parliament elections on June 6, Macierewicz launched an attack on the prime minister.
Tusk, he claimed, had been attacking him since 1992 and had, in a previous stint as prime minister, had made the army “dependent on the Russian Federation”.
Kaczyński’s right hand
Macierewicz rose to prominence in the early 1990s as a stalwart supporter of vetting candidates for key public positions with regard to their communist-regime affiliations.
Yet, in 2018, Kaczyński “sacrificed” him and accepted his removal from his job as defense minister seat to avoid widening a rift between Law and Justice and President Andrzej Duda.
According to Newsweek, Macierewicz himself was a symbol of insubordination who never recognized that Duda, as head of state, outranked him when it came to control of the army.
Their dispute held up promotions, undermined trust in state structures, and the decay of the military, the magazine added.
The tit-for-tat allegations could further heat the political waters ahead of June’s European elections.
Any accusations of ties with Russia leveled against key figures in Law and Justice could tarnish the party’s image and influence its prospects in the elections. In a recent opinion poll conducted by Opinia24, Tusk’s Civic Coalition holds a slight lead over its main rival.
Source: TVP World, PAP
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