The president has accused the new Polish government led by Donald Tusk of implementing reforms of state media that amount to “anarchy”. The tensions have risen between the head of state and the new pro-European Union administration. The swearing-in of a government led by former European Council President Tusk this month marked the beginning of a period of cohabitation with President Andrzej Duda, who was an ally of the previous nationalist administration.
On Wednesday, the new government took a public news channel off the air and dismissed executives from state media, saying it was designed to restore impartiality. State media, particularly news channel TVP Info, were accused of becoming outlets for propaganda under the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Duda criticized the sudden implementation of the changes, stating that they broke the constitution as they skipped the appropriate parliamentary procedures. He called the actions “completely illegal” and labeled it as “anarchy.”
Former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy from PiS were sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison for abuse of power in previous posts. In 2015, Duda issued them with a pardon soon after PiS came to power.
“I told them that if they were put in prison, they would be the first political prisoners in Poland since 1989,” Duda said, referring to the year when communist rule ended. Responding to an appeal from Duda to respect the law when implementing media reforms, Tusk said the actions were aimed at “restoring legal order and common decency in public life”.
The new government believes that Duda himself was involved in multiple violations of the constitution during PiS’s eight years in power. The tensions between the president and the new administration continue to escalate.
According to reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz, the situation between the government and the president remains tense with the media reforms causing an uproar in the country.
The stand-off between the president and the new pro-European Union administration continues to intensify, with both sides citing breaches of the constitution and legal procedures.
