Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of National Defense, in an interview with Justyna Dobrosz-Oracz about neo-TVP, could not praise the Territorial Defense Forces. The same one he said in 2018, when he was an opposition MP, that they “do not fulfill their role” and that instead of creating this new component of the Polish Armed Forces, PLN 1.5 billion should be allocated to help people with disabilities.
The current government has a real problem again. It is not only about the flood itself and the urgent tasks connected with it, but also about the fact that at almost every step he has to do a lot of gymnastics to admit that his predecessors were right about something or had made a good decision, so as not to say it directly. An example of such a decision of the United Right government is the creation of the Territorial Defense Forces.
Kosiniak-Kamysz loved WOT
This new formation of the Polish army, created on January 1, 2017 by the then Minister of National Defense Antoni Macierewicz, although ridiculed and criticized from the very beginning by the then opposition, was called “Macierewicz’s private army” (among other things, it was suggested that it would be used to pacify citizens protesting against the PiS regime, which is often presented in the left-liberal media as a pseudo-army often consisting of stupid, primitive, uneducated, aggressive and certainly “far-right” guys), and later, during the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, they – like the Border Guard – were accused of cruelty towards alleged refugees, and in fact – migrants brought to Europe by Lukashenko, today once again shows that this is “always ready, always close”.
As with the migration crisis that began in 2021, and earlier – the coronavirus pandemic – this time, territorial authorities rose to the challenge.
The establishment of WOT under the previous government was criticized. Is it good that this formation exists?
— Justyna Dobrosz-Oracz asked the head of the Ministry of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, about neo-TVP
I have already talked about this. When WOT shows its effectiveness, I think it will remove all doubts. I have long since dispelled them, even though I had them. Today, not only today, but for a long time, WOT soldiers show that they are really needed: they help, they offer support. I am very grateful to them for this. I think it is a way to test myself at such a difficult moment, by giving a great testimony. Thank you very much for this
– the journalist’s interlocutor replied with obvious emotion.
“I don’t feel safer in Poland”
Meanwhile, the same politician said in a 2018 interview with Onet:
WOT does not fulfill its role. It was created by Antoni Macierewicz only because of his ambitions. 1.5 billion PLN should go to disabled people. I do not feel safer in Poland because of the creation of WOT.
In the same year, at a press conference with Jacek Protasiewicz, then an opposition MP, Kosiniak-Kamysz also demanded the liquidation of WOT:
Or, once we overcome the flood crisis, will the current government simply, in a humane way, apologize to the Territorials? Coincidentally, Antoni Macierewicz has been absent from the Ministry of National Defense since 2018 (since December 2023, the next PiS minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, has also been absent from the Ministry), and his “private army” is still serving the Poles.
jj/X, TVP Info, Onet.pl
Source: wPolityce