A very public spat between the top brass of the Polish military and the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) is sucking up media oxygen ahead of Sunday’s crucial parliamentary election in what the Polish government has called an orchestrated opposition assault before the vote.
Poland’s highest-ranking general tendered his resignation Monday, October 9th, on the grounds of government incompetence and an alleged coverup regarding a downed Russian missile in what is being seen in Warsaw as an engineered slight against PiS.
Chief of the Polish Armed Forces General Rajmund Andrzejczak left his role in what is reported as being the culmination of a six-month dispute with PiS’ Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak over allegations that the general failed to detect a Russian missile that entered Polish airspace and allegations that the army was being used as an electoral prop for Warsaw’s ruling conservatives.
The calculated public resignation by General Andrzejczak is understood to have initially taken PiS seniority by total surprise and has undermined the party’s hardline national security rhetoric less than a week before the crunch vote.
PiS representatives have downplayed the military departures even linking the resignations to political machinations by the progressive opposition with the government traditionally strong among the army.
General Andrzejczak was joined in his departure by the army’s operational commander General Tomasz Piotrowski with the role quickly filled but which has nevertheless shaken PiS which has trumpeted its successes in terms of national security during the recent campaign.
Curiously the resignations were first reported by the centrist Rzeczpospolita newspaper that was partially purchased by an investment fund run by George Soros last month and which has led the charge in takingmarkedly anti-government stance during the past month of campaigning.
Opposition parties wasted no time before twisting the knife on the government, citing what they view as eight years of mismanagement and the politicisation of the military. ”The whole world now knows that in Poland we have a dramatic crisis between the government and the army.” said opposition MP Tomasz Siemoniak.
An example of this politicisation cited by the opposition is the leaking of documents by the Polish Defence Minister at the centre of this week’s scandal, alleging that Civic Platform had a secret pact to divide Poland with Russia.
The resignations with the military are likely to be seen by PiS as another part of an organised plot to dislodge the conservative government. Both Germany and The European European European Commission have already been accused of de facto backing the country’s liberal opposition in the form of Donald Tusk and his Civic Platform party.
While PiS is likely to be the largest party come election day, there is growing expectation that they could lose out in the 460-seat Parliament (Sejm) as Tusk eyes potential coalition partners with centrists and the radical left in what PiS has called a potential coalition of chaos for Poland.
