OUR INTERVIEW. Prof. Fish: Tusk’s coalition reflects the Round Table arrangement. For them, eight years of PiS rule is illegal

“What should PiS be held responsible for? From low unemployment, large investments, business development? It’s all about whims, a constant confrontation with ‘evil’, as they call PiS,” says Prof. WPolityce.pl. Mieczysław Ryba, political scientist at the Catholic University of Lublin.

wPolityce.pl: What will you say today about Donald Tusk’s statement?

Prof. Mieczysław Ryba: This exposé symbolizes what happened at the Round Table and was kept after the Round Table. That’s why Lech Wałęsa is there, and Aleksander Kwaśniewski is somewhere in the background. The entire arrangement was reproduced: there is Czarzasty, representing the former PZPR arrangement. Kosiniak-Kamysz seems to have broken away from his past from the time of Tusk’s coalition and in a way he also represents the folk element there, because ZSL was also there.

And finally: the left-liberal post-solidarity component of Donald Tusk and his entourage.

The last eight years of the rule of law and justice are illegal for them. It is by definition unauthorized, so – also by definition – it must be cleaned. And the “cleaning” announcements were aimed in this direction.

Emotions come to the fore, for example when reading Piotr Szczęsny’s manifesto or remembering Paweł Adamowicz, talking about family, love and of course ‘holding PiS to account.’ What about program issues and campaign promises?

Well, something will happen there, because the Poles need to be provided not only with the Olympic Games, but also with some bread. But later there will be investigative committees and other cases related to the war with PiS, so the remaining cases will be covered up.

Ultimately, it seems to me that these 100 details will only be on paper, but this is more or less how it is handled and implemented. The games will be much more important than bread.

Recently, media reports have emerged indicating that Donald Tusk plans to aggressively pursue “purges” from the first days of his administration: both in the media and in various types of institutions.

The media is crucial because Donald Tusk likes to function as long as there is no criticism from the media, as long as he has security in his PR world and all his rhetorical tricks and eristic treatments are accepted at face value.

What he brings with him – the composition of the Council of Ministers – is on the one hand radical ideological politicians, and on the other hand ‘reheated schnitzels’ like Sienkiewicz or Sikorski.

In my opinion, the media will be at the forefront of his attempts to monopolize power and ‘clean up’ Poland.

Is Radosław Sikorski at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a certain announcement of the future policy of the new government towards President Andrzej Duda? We can expect a difficult and confrontational cooperation with the head of state, as was the case with the late. President Lech Kaczynski?

Certainly, but President Duda is wiser about Lech Kaczyński’s experience, I think he is also media wise and I think on such a scale some things will be impossible.

Moreover, PiS is currently in a different situation than in 2007. It is stronger than then. It’s a slightly different time and therefore it won’t be as easy, but the process remains the same. Old people, old methods, that’s clear.

It was no coincidence that I mentioned it late. Lech Kaczynski. Yesterday, after the debate on the exposé of the outgoing Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, who returns to this position, recalled the figure of the tragically deceased president – who supposedly spoke about Jacek Kurski, but turned to the president of PiS. How would you respond to this situation?

Tusk probably wanted to provoke him. The president is known to react emotionally when the figure of his brother, who is a saint for him, is used cynically. But there will be more such cynical tricks. Today we commemorated the letter of this unfortunate suicide. Quoting this letter in the Sejm shows truly far-reaching cynicism.

Yesterday, Marshal Hołownia did not hesitate to mention the need to respect the majesty of death, as he did today, after the reaction of PiS parliamentarians to Prime Minister Tusk’s reading of Piotr Szczęsny’s manifesto.

This is what it will look like. We have to take that into account, but for now a certain difficulty for them is the pluralism in the mainstream media. But soon it could all look very different.

So what we can expect from the new government is not so much a ‘smiling Poland’ and a new majority of ‘national harmony’ announced by politicians, but a continued sharp political fight, ‘reckonings’ and a greater polarization of society?

These won’t even be settlements. Why should PiS be held responsible? From low unemployment, large investments, business development? It’s all about whims, a constant confrontation with ‘evil’, as they call PiS. What is evil? In fact, the devil is evil. Do they want to fight pure evil, because they have in their ranks people involved in various scandals? It sounds weird, but this is what it will look like.

Thank you very much for the interview.