During the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, a debate took place on the 2024 annual report on the rule of law. PiS MEPs Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik participated in the discussion.
Mariusz Kamiński noted that the European Commission’s report on the state of the rule of law in the European Union in 2024 is a document that once again reflects the political views of its authors, rather than a reflection of the truth about the actual state of the rule of law in the European Union. “A report that fails to address the brutal trampling of the principles of the rule of law currently taking place in Poland cannot be taken seriously,” the MEP noted. Kamiński highlighted cases of violations of the rule of law in Poland that are not reported by the public media, which have been taken over by the current government, and about which Brussels also remains silent. “In Warsaw, Tusk’s regime is violating the Polish constitution, existing laws, and rulings of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal; there is also an ongoing attack on the independence of the central bank and the National Broadcasting Council,” the politician pointed out. He went on to list how the legally appointed National Prosecutor is being physically prevented from performing his duties, while the highly politicized prosecutor’s office is initiating criminal proceedings against the First President of the Supreme Court. He added that the parliamentary immunities of opposition lawmakers are also being violated. “In Poland under Tusk’s rule, fundamental human rights are being violated. Just as during the communist dictatorship, we have a problem with political prisoners and the use of torture against them,” commented the PiS MEP. He noted that “it is a disgrace that the report does not mention these issues even in a single sentence.”
Maciej Wąsik drew attention to the case of the Russian GRU spy Pablo Gonzales, also known as Paweł Rubcow, who posed as a Spanish journalist and spied on European elites and the Russian opposition, including Alexander Navalny. He recalled that Gonzales was arrested in Poland in February 2022, exchanged in August of that year for Western citizens imprisoned in Russia, and personally welcomed at the airport by Vladimir Putin. “I am bringing this up because the Commission, in its July 2023 report, deemed Gonzales’s detention ‘a violation of human rights and media freedom,’ and the Polish government was criticized by the Commission for detaining Putin’s spy,” —the PiS MEP noted. The Polish politician asked: “Will the Commission apologize to Poland for reports that echo Putin’s propaganda?”
He also recalled that during Commissioner Reynders’ January visit to Poland, Pablo Gonzales was being held in custody in Radom. “Does the Commission know that in the same detention center, at the same time, a few cells away, the former Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Mariusz Kamiński—who is present in this chamber—was on a hunger strike, and that the services under his authority detained Gonzalez?” the MEP asked. He explained that Mariusz Kamiński had been unlawfully imprisoned by Donald Tusk’s government in defiance of the Supreme Court and was a political prisoner. Maciej Wąsik also asked the Commission, “Why did it include the spy Gonzales in its reports, yet is now omitting the case of MEP Mariusz Kamiński?”
