Poland’s bumpy transition to a brand new authorities hit dramatic turbulence on Wednesday when a distinguished hard-line minister within the former right-wing administration declared himself a “political prisoner” and introduced he was occurring a starvation strike to protest his arrest following conviction for abuse of energy.
Searching for to keep away from a two-year jail sentence handed down by a Warsaw court docket in December, the previous minister, Mariusz Kaminski, took refuge from police on Tuesday within the palace of the Polish president, an in depth ally of the previous conservative governing social gathering, Regulation and Justice.
The ensuing standoff between law enforcement officials loyal to the brand new authorities of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a veteran centrist, and Regulation and Justice supporters escalated a disruptive marketing campaign by the previous governing social gathering, defeated in an October election, to withstand the switch of energy by casting the election winners as illegitimate usurpers intent on persecuting their rivals.
Tuesday’s confrontation on the presidential palace ended peacefully late within the night after law enforcement officials have been allowed to enter the constructing. They took Mr. Kaminski, a former minister answerable for Poland’s safety providers, into custody, together with a former aide, Maciej Wasik, who has additionally been convicted of abuse of energy.
In assertion issued from jail on Wednesday, Mr. Kaminski denounced his arrest as “an act of political revenge” and mentioned: “Due to this fact, as a political prisoner, I’m beginning a starvation protest from the primary day of my imprisonment.”
Mr. Kaminski, one of the vital highly effective members of the previous Regulation and Justice authorities, led Poland’s robust crackdown on migrants attempting to sneak into the nation from neighboring Belarus. He stirred outrage in 2021 by accusing migrants of being sexual deviants.
The Helsinki Basis for Human Rights, a monitoring group, referred to as Mr. Kaminski’s description of himself as a political prisoner a “deeply unfair distortion” that “damages the reminiscence of individuals truly imprisoned for his or her beliefs, attitudes and preventing for democracy and human rights.”
Mr. Kaminski and Mr. Wasik have been sentenced final month to jail for his or her function within the 2007 entrapment of a political rival whereas serving as senior officers at Poland’s anti-corruption company throughout a earlier Regulation and Justice authorities. The case concerned proof that they’d overseen a bribe supply and the forgery of paperwork of their pursuit of the rival, Andrzej Lepper, a radical farmers’ chief who later dedicated suicide.
The case rumbled on for years and resulted in an preliminary conviction in 2015. President Andrzej Duda pardoned them however his motion was later invalidated. A brand new case, began after an enchantment from Mr. Lepper’s household, led to a brand new conviction on Dec. 20. However the males remained free till this week, when a Warsaw court docket issued a warrant for his or her instant arrest, prompting Mr. Kaminski and Mr. Wasjik to hunt sanctuary within the presidential palace.
Regulation and Justice gained extra votes than some other single social gathering in Poland’s October normal election however misplaced its parliamentary majority to a coalition of events led by Mr. Tusk, who was named prime minister in December.
The previous governing social gathering’s chairman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, insisting that right-wing forces gained the election, has repeatedly vowed to dam efforts by the brand new authorities to say its authority. He led supporters final month in an occupation of the headquarters of Poland’s public broadcasting system, claiming {that a} change of administration ordered by Mr. Tusk’s minister of tradition was an assault on democracy.
Tv and radio stations within the public broadcasting system had beforehand served as propaganda mouthpieces for Regulation and Justice, spewing conspiracy theories about Mr. Tusk being a German agent bent on turning Poland right into a vassal state.
In an indication of additional bother forward, a Warsaw court docket dominated on Tuesday that the federal government couldn’t set up new administration at state tv and radio with out the assent of the Nationwide Media Council, a physique created by Regulation and Justice and stacked with loyalists against Mr. Tusk.
