Activists and supporters of Poland’s conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party took to the streets of Warsaw Thursday afternoon protesting the aggressive takeover of the public broadcaster by the new left-liberal government.
Just after taking office in December, the Brussels-backed government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk sacked senior managers, journalists, and other employees of TVP, Poland’s state broadcaster, after accusing them of having ties to the previous government, led by PiS.
The move led to high-ranking members of the PiS, including the country’s former prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński, having a sit-down protest in TVP headquarters. Poland’s culture minister then announced that he would liquidate the entire network.
On Tuesday, the National Court Registry ruled that the government does not have the right to appoint new managers of state broadcaster TVP—a competency that falls, according to Polish broadcasting law, under the authority of the National Media Council. The ruling, however, does not affect the later decision to liquidate the network.
In what was labelled as a “Protest for Free Poles,” tens of thousands of people converged on the capital. Protesters included MEPs from Spain’s national-conservative VOX party.
Poland has been mired in political turmoil since late December as the country’s newly installed Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his liberal-left coalition implemented a raft of authoritarian measures to crush the recently ousted PiS party.
Events in Poland took a dramatic turn Tuesday as police raided the country’s Presidential Palace to arrest two ex-PiS ministers in what has been called a politically motivated stunt to jail opposition to the Tusk regime.
The Polish Parliament (Sejm) is reported to have closed early before the rally, while, in a statement to The European Conservative, PiS chairman Mariusz Błaszczak said that buses carrying MPs to the protest were being checked by security.
The conservative Right in Poland is now pinning its hopes on President Andrzej Duda, a keen opponent of the new liberal regime. Former PiS PM Mateusz Morawiecki warned that his country was returning to communist conditions as the new Tusk government laid down its rule.
Both the EU and the international community have been silent on the rapid march towards tyranny in Poland, despite having tarred the country as an authoritarian state throughout eight years of conservative rule. The European Commission has repeatedly declared it could not comment on the affairs of a member state.
Before Thursday’s rally, PiS President Jarosław Kaczyński declared that the new government was conducting long-prepared plans against the Right and was “fully aware” of the consequences for democracy. Both Kaczyński and Morawiecki were among the PiS officials addressing the party faithful as speakers warned that the recently arrested MPs are likely to be stripped of their voting rights in what they viewed as a clear assault on democracy.
The stakes look only set to rise as jailed former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński, a conservative lawmaker who shot to fame for his disobedience to communism in the 1980s, publicly announced that he would commence a hunger strike until released, saying that the new government was ignoring a pardon previously granted to him.
The worst fears of Polish conservatives appear to be coming true after last October’s elections where PiS lost their parliamentary majority despite remaining the country’s largest party. Tusk and his officials are overt about their wish to chart a new ideological direction as they attempt to alter the country’s established laws on abortion and same-sex marriage.
