2010. Can. Flood. One of the largest in Poland. The peak of the tidal wave on the Vistula River was the largest in 160 years. The water level in many places (for example in Krakow) exceeded the level during the so-called millennium flood in 1997. In May and June, Prime Minister Donald Tusk visits the worst affected municipalities.
In one of them he answers the questions of desperate residents, what next?
I didn’t elect your mayor. From this point on, let everyone, literally, let everyone do their due.
There is no mention of the imposition of the state of emergency, which has been requested by various circles – early presidential elections are approaching after the Smolensk tragedy, and this would entail a postponement of them. Bronisław Komorowski, acting president at the time, reassures the victims of the flood:
Water has a way of collecting and posing a threat, but then it flows into the Baltic Sea. To the main river to the Baltic Sea. So I haven’t heard of flood events lasting more than a week or two in a long time.
Today, in the face of an ecological catastrophe in Przylepie near Zielona Góra, Tusk does not say “I did not choose the starost for you”, although it was the starost of PO, Ireneusz Plechan, who approved the construction of a toxic dump in this town in 2012, and after that local government officials of PO or acting on her recommendation have done nothing to solve the problem all these years. Avinion, a private company, ignored the recommendations in the permit and stopped transporting 1,000 cubic meters of toxic substances shortly after. And since then, local authorities have done nothing to defuse this toxic bomb, which poses a threat to local residents and the environment, especially since waste disposal is the responsibility of local governments – municipalities, poviats and county marshals. Marshal Elżbieta Polak of PO can be excused – she was so busy fighting mercury in the Oder River that she didn’t have time to bother with trifles like the poisonous bomb ticking under her nose.
As it turns out, there’s no such catastrophe or tragedy that the Leader of the Opposition (as he calls himself) wouldn’t pounce on Donald Tusk like a vulture, if he could be used to hit PiS (sorry about the colloquialism, but sometimes I fall into the poetics of the PO campaign). And this time he used his Twitter profile, which had long since turned into a fake news factory, to blame PiS for this situation:
The stench of burning garbage in Zielona Góra. The stench of hundreds of illegal dumps with impunity. The stench of PiS corruption all over Poland. Kaczyński and Sasin on a picnic.
Prime Minister Morawiecki immediately replied:
Awful. The juggler of the PO – Cheaters Party even wants to use fire for his black PR. They will use any misfortune to divide the Poles. Together with Tusk, the stench of lies returned to Poland. The Polish state has been fighting the fire and its consequences since Saturday. I want to thank the services for their great work and the Poles for their calmness!
It is true that the state services designated for this purpose fight the fire with great dedication and protect the life and health of the local residents, and Prime Minister Morawiecki does not say to them: “I did not choose you starost and marshal.”
This fake news production of Tusk on Twitter is becoming, in fact, it has long been a modern branch of Radio Yerevan of old jokes, ridiculing propaganda tricks not only in the USSR, but also in satellite states. The showpiece was the one over Red Square, where – as Radio Yerevan, generated as a joke – reported, Mercedes cars were handed out, although not Mercedes, only bicycles, and they were not given away, but stolen.
The bland and uninformed production of Tusk’s fake news factory testifies to a desperate attempt to intensify bad, hateful emotions towards the opponent, as one of the advisers told Tusk that this was the only chance to win this election. But the prospect of Tusk winning them is getting further and further away as it appears that the majority of Poles have been vaccinated against the political and media rabies. ZR vaccine + RORwKŻ (Common Sense + Real Assessment of the Reality in which they live).
Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.