“There is absolutely no disagreement between President Andrzej Duda and Minister of National Defence, Antoni Macierewicz,” said PiS MEP, Ryszard Czarnecki. “Clearly, there is a conflict,” insist opposition MPs. Politicians reacted to the President's speech delivered during yesterday's celebrations of the Armed Forces Day.
“The Army of the Republic of Poland is not anyone's private army,” insisted President Andrzej Duda in his speech, delivered on the Polish Armed Forces Day. He also stressed the need for a consensus on military matters, despite political differences.
“The minister nodded. This means he agrees with the President”
Law and Justice MEP, Ryszard Czarnecki, said there was “absolutely no disagreement between President Andrzej Duda and National Defence Minister, Antoni Macierewicz.” The politician also pointed out that “the President has the right to state such obvious truths, but they do not affect the general approach to the army, represented by the head of the Ministry of National Defence.”
“I think that repeating certain truths is a privilege not only of the Church, but also of certain politicians,” said the Law and Justice MEP. He added that what the President said about the army was obviously correct.
“Mr. Antoni Macierewicz, whom I observed closely, often nodded during the President's speech. If Mr. Macierewicz had been Bulgarian, I would have thought his nods meant opposition. But as he is Polish, it meant he agreed with President Andrzej Duda,” he commented.
“The President called it what it is”
For members of the opposition, the key question is whether the President's words will be followed by deeds. According to Civic Platform deputies, the President should order an audit of the army to discover its true condition.
“The President's words should be understood to refer to the Minister of National Defence, because it is he who is building a private army,” said Civic Platform MP, Czesław Mroczek, during a press conference at the parliament.
“A purge of the cadres, removal of experienced commanders, creation of the Territorial Defence Force, currently a political tool and an instrument of propaganda, rather than a real force. Soldiers taking part in mensiversaries, the famous Smoleńsk vigils, all this amounts to building a private army,” said the politician.
“It is important that yesterday President Duda called it what it is,” Mroczek concluded.
“It is unacceptable for Antoni Macierewicz to humiliate the President”
“President Andrzej Duda has a democratic mandate and it is unacceptable for Minister of Defence Antoni Macierewicz to humiliate and ignore him all the time,” said Nowoczesna MP Adam Szłapka.
“The fact that these words were used by the President shows that the situation has become absolutely preposterous,” Szłapka told journalists during a meeting at the Sejm.
This “is the consequence of the fact that in matters of security and national defense, the President has to work with Antoni Macierewicz.” According to the Nowoczesna MP, the conflict between Duda and Macierewicz is a very serious threat to state security.
“The President finally realized that it was he, and not Macierewicz, who had constitutional rights and a democratic mandate, and that it is unacceptable for the minister to humiliate and ignore him,” said the MP.
According to Szłapka, minister Macierewicz introduced changes in the command structure of the army in order to gain power over it, and this has led to a conflict.
“The President has tools that are far more powerful”
Szłapka also responded to President Duda's declaration made on Tuesday, concerning the need for “unity in the Polish army, because there is only one Polish army, and it must not be split according to branches of armed forces or any other classification.”
“The President is aware that Antoni Macierewicz's pet project, the Territorial Defence Force, is being built as a private military organization, rather than a part of the armed forced,” said the Nowoczesna MP. He also added that “there is clearly a conflict, and the magic spells cast by Law and Justice politicians cannot change this reality.”
Szłapka hopes that “unless the Minister of National Defence changes his ways, President Duda will not approve any nominations of new generals, and thus will paralyze Antoni Macierewicz's work, forcing Prime Minister Beata Szydło to dismiss the minister.”
Asked if President Duda might feel isolated from his political group, Adam Szłapka replied that “in this conflict, the President has tools that are far more powerful than the disciplined army of Jarosław Kaczyński's politicians, which has no significance whatsoever.”
Źródło: tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl
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