“External institutions had no right to interfere in the electoral process in Poland, but unfortunately they did. The face of this activity was the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who expressed the hope that she would meet Tusk as Prime Minister and openly and consciously join the campaign in Poland. To this we must also add pressure from the so-called Weber’s group,” said Jadwiga Wiśniewska, PiS member of the European Parliament, in an interview with the wPolityce.pl portal.
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wPolityce.pl: During the election campaign, Donald Tusk made a “solemn promise” in Sopot that he would “unblock the KPO funds” the day after the elections. This did not happen, but later KO politicians explained that it was a metaphor. Izabela Leszczyna assured that this blockade would be lifted the day after the formation of a new government from the current opposition. Do you believe this will be possible?
Jadwiga Wiśniewska: If this were to happen and the EC were to lift the block on the KPO, it would be an open admission by the Commission that the decision to withhold funds was politically motivated and used as a tool to put pressure on the Polish government and Poland’s democratic choices. This would clearly show that the EC was acting on political orders. This is shameful, because this European institution aims to be an apolitical guardian of the Treaties, and as you can see, this is only the case by definition. As for Tusk’s own promises, this isn’t his first unfulfilled promise regarding the KPO. He promised many times that he would go to Brussels and that the money would flow. He didn’t go and the money wasn’t released. During the campaign he stated that he would do so the day after the election. There have been four. Now he says he will go to Brussels in the middle of next week. I just wonder in what capacity. I would like to remind you that Law and Justice won the elections and our government is still in power. It can be assumed that Tusk will return with the message that the money is there, waiting for the president to entrust the mission of forming a government to the left-liberal coalition of chaos. This will likely be one of the bargaining chips of opposition politicians who will put pressure on the president. A good practice of Polish parliamentarism is that the winning party is given the mission to form the government. More than 7.6 million Poles trust Law and Justice, which is more than 1 million more than the second-place KO. So we have a strong, democratic mandate to try to establish a new government. And the pressure that opposition groups exert on the presidential palace is unjustified pressure.
If these funds are indeed still blocked due to – as the EC claims – the lack of rule of law in Poland, is it possible that the rule of law will be restored within one day by the new government?
Poland is a democratic, law-abiding country, as best illustrated by the recent elections in which a record number of citizens participated. This impressive turnout, for which the voters deserve thanks, shows that Polish democracy is doing well. We are faced with such a paradox that we now no longer hear from the opposition parties that Poland is an illegitimate country just because the combined opposition parties have a greater number of seats. The paradox is that, in their view, the rule of law always exists when they win. The truth is that the EU institutions have unfortunately been used for the election campaign in Poland. In this respect, these elections were not equal. External institutions had no right to interfere in the electoral process in Poland, but unfortunately they did. The face of this activity was the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who expressed the hope that she would meet Tusk as Prime Minister and openly and consciously join the campaign in Poland. To this we must also add pressure from the so-called Weber groups. Such undue pressure was also exerted in the European Parliament forum, which launched a debate on the so-called visa scandal two weeks before the elections in Poland, even though the Presidium of the European Parliament had previously agreed that six weeks before the elections in Poland no debates would take place about a particular country, so as not to disrupt the electoral process. Moreover, just before the elections, the European Parliament’s Constitutional Committee would vote on changes to the Treaties that would de facto turn the EU into a super state, without veto power. This vote was also postponed so that total opposition politicians did not have to explain to voters that they support such unfavorable demands for Poland. I will emphasize again: the KPO has been blocked for political reasons, because there are no substantive grounds for it.
Do you therefore expect that KO will not fulfill its election promises, or that the new government will change or eliminate the social programs introduced by PiS?
Looking at how they handled election promises when they were in power, I don’t expect them to keep their promises now. They are known to have said several things as part of the campaign. After all, it was on election night that we heard from one of the leaders of the Third Way that the time for distributing votes in Poland was almost up. The PO doctrine that “there is no money and there will be no money” is known to everyone and there are many indications that it will continue to apply today. Nowadays we hear about a so-called “Morawiecki’s hole”. The budget for the new year is a responsible and safe budget, prepared in such a way that all social programs are implemented. There is no “hole”. Such insinuations are a preparation for withdrawal from social programs.
I will also refer to what you said earlier: you believe that the EP, through the debate on the so-called visa scandal just before the elections, and has the EC, by blocking the KPO, deliberately interfered in the election campaign in Poland?
Yes of course. I made the case very clearly that both the European Parliament and the European Commission were not apolitical and impartial, but that they were on one side of the political dispute and part of the ongoing election campaign in Poland. European money for Poland was blocked at the request of the total opposition, as evidenced by Mr Trzaskowski’s statement in 2018, who warned that if they did not win the elections, the money would be frozen. And that’s how it really was. This is an instrumental use of EU institutions to interfere with electoral processes in a Member State.
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Source: wPolityce