"I think Jarosław Kaczyński would be an excellent and the best prime minister. I think that the chairman would be a better prime minister than me," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an exclusive interview for TVN24's "Fakty po Faktach". Anita Werner also asked the prime minister about the recent smear campaign that targeted certain Polish judges. Mr Morawiecki said that "there's no evidence that the justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro knew about this issue".
Asked if, in case of Law and Justice winning the upcoming parliamentary election, he would remain Poland's prime minister, Morawiecki replied: "At the moment, we're focusing on actually winning this election, because we must admit, in all our humility, that our opponents are very strong and we respect all of our political competitors. We will see what will be the verdict of voters. However, if Law and Justice wins the majority in the parliament, which I hope will happen as we have proved that we can run social policy and development policy under a balanced budget, then the political caucus will make appropriate decisions in appropriate time".
He added: "as of today, no decisions have been made regarding what would follow after the election, because first the voters must pass their verdict and appropriate decision will be taken by the party leadership, just as it is done in all other countries all over the world, in all parties".
Anita Werner finally asked who would be a better prime minister, Morawiecki or Kaczyński, to which Morawiecki replied: "I think that chairman Jarosław Kaczyński would be an excellent and the best prime minister, which he had already proved when he was the prime minister".
"Yes, I'm sure that Mr Chairman would be a better prime minister," he added.
Ziobro and smear campaign
Anita Werner asked the prime minister about the recent scandal, the so-called smear campaign that is said to have been orchestrated by employees of the ministry of justice. The affair uncovered by Onet.pl and Gazeta Wyborcza has led to deputy justice minister Łukasz Piebiak's dismissal.
The aim of the campaign was to discredit certain judges that are openly criticising the reforms in the judiciary, introduced by the ruling Law and Justice party. In a recent survey, 19 percent of Law and Justice supporters said that the justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro should resign after the scandal in his ministry.
"Of course, I’ve spoken with the minister and it’s good that the reaction was so quick. Twenty four hours and deputy minister Piebiak has announced his resignation. We’ve distanced ourselves from this issue, we’ve reacted appropriately, because all this hate speech and all that had been done, leaked information, all this was absolutely reprehensible," said Morawiecki.
Asked if Zbigniew Ziobro should bear the political responsibility the scandal, Morawiecki replied: "there’s no evidence that minister Ziobro knew about this issue, that had any knowledge about the things that were happening".
"Minister Ziobro announced that he would not get involved in this case, to make sure that there are no doubts about impartiality in explaining this affair," he added.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Fakty po Faktach
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24