Before Christmas, the PO chairman, Donald Tusk, disappeared from Polish politics, in the past 3 weeks he posted only a few videos on one of the social networking sites, in which he, as usual, attacked the United States government. Right, even on the occasion of sending Christmas wishes to Poland and New Year.
Yesterday he convened a press conference in the Senate building, in which he assured that the PO (indeed, the entire opposition) is in favor of the release of funds from the National Reconstruction Plan by the European Commission.
But he did not explain why PO MEPs in the EP voted for resolutions at least several times over more than 2 years even obliging the EC not to pay these funds, or why even his interventions in the Commission, which he announced several times on press conferences, also did not yield a positive result.
However, he was most annoyed by the questions of a journalist from TVP Info about the earlier statement of former MPC member Bogusław Grabowski, who in Radio Zet recommended that the government set up after the elections to privatize “everything”, social programs to liquidate and raise the retirement age.
There was also a question about the statement of Grzegorz Schetyna, who denied on the same radio that the PO had raised the retirement age, but at the same time said that the new government should return to this issue.
Tusk distanced himself from Grabowski’s statements and acted as if he did not know the man, although he was a member of his Economic Council, while referring to Schetyna’s statements and stating that the issue of raising the retirement age was “closed” to him ” used to be.
The only thing is that Tusk and other main PO politicians at the time (including President Komorowski) even “swore” in the 2011 election campaign that there would be no increase in the retirement age, but already in 2012 PO and PSL in the Parliament have in this case passed a bill.
It was not an ordinary reform, as the leading politicians of the PO and PSL have tried to explain the introduction of this solution until now, but a breach of the social contract that had been in force for many years.
The PO-PSL coalition then in power pushed this solution through with the proverbial “roller”, despite enormous social resistance, opposition from all trade union organizations, but also the opinion of many experts.
The then coalition rejected the motion for a referendum on raising the retirement age tabled by NSZZ “Solidarity”, supported by nearly 2 million citizens, with signatures collected by the Union.
During the debate on this issue in the Sejm, Donald Tusk decided to openly confront Solidarity. Trade union representatives were barred from entering the Sejm Gallery, although more than 10,000 of them demonstrated in front of the Sejm.
Moreover, during this debate, Donald Tusk used the words “any pętak” when addressing them to the president of the union Piotr Duda (who presented the motion for a referendum in the Sejm), which the unions saw as an attack on all those they signed the project and were ready to storm the parliament buildings.
Only the presence of mind of union president Piotr Duda, who urged unionists to remain calm, prevented rioting and perhaps brutal police action, which had gathered in the Sejm in large numbers and were prepared to pacify the demonstrators.
Platform error
After returning to national politics in 2021, when asked about raising the retirement age, he spoke of a mistake his formation would not repeat if he returned to rule in Poland.
Only that a mistake is made if you write “ó” in a word instead of “u” or vice versa, when that decision of the parliamentary majority of PO-PSL was just a gigantic scam of millions of Poles.
Moreover, one can be confident that if Tusk’s formation came back to power, such ideas would return, because the restoration of the previous retirement age by the United Right government and the associated budget costs (estimated at about PLN 10 billion a year), PO politicians throw it “in the bag”, what they call regular giving away.
Tusk again denies that the PO will return to the issue of raising the retirement age after his possible return to power, but the denial bears strong resemblance to the 2011 parliamentary campaign.
Source: wPolityce