“I consider these words as motivated by the willingness to defend the image and to capitalise politically at the expense of the victims of the storm,” Jolanta Fierek, the mayor of Czersk, wrote in an emotional letter to TVN24. In this way she referred to the statements by the prime minister Beata Szydło and the government spokesperson in which local governments had been accused of insufficient reaction to the last week’s fierce storm.
“I am the mayor of Czersk, the municipality on the territory of which Rytel is situated and which suffered the most during the last week’s fierce storm. That is the reason why I feel obliged to speak up in the defence of not only my own actions but also the actions of local governments in general” she wrote in the introduction to the letter sent on Monday to the editors of TVN24.
“An attempt to politicise a tragedy”
“I decided to take this step after the Saturday’s “Fakty po Faktach” show was broadcast on TVN24, where the government spokesperson Rafał Bochenek uttered untrue words about the reaction of local governments to the last week’s fierce storm in the north of the country. I consider the words uttered both by the spokesperson Bochenek and by the prime minister Beata Szydło (...) as motivated by the willingness to defend the image and to capitalise politically at the expense of the victims of the storm,” the mayor said.
Representatives of the government did indeed accuse members of local governments of negligence.
The spokesman of the government Rafał Bochenek on Saturday in the “Fakty po Faktach” show on TVN24 summed up that “the situation in the Pomerania is the result of the lack of appropriate communication between individual levels of public institutions – municipalities, the county and the voivodeship governor.” The spokesman of the government reserved that he was not generalising, but in some cases – due to the fact that local government crisis management units were not established – information about problems did not reach the voivodeship governor, and that is why the voivodeship governor and the government were unable to “take remedy action early enough.”
The prime minister Beata Szydło spoke in a similar tone on the same day. She also reserved that she did not want to charge all local governments en bloc with the responsibility, but she pointed out to the members of local governments that, in her opinion, they had ineffectively passed information about the situation on the site, as a result of which the voivodeship governor, in the opinion of the prime minister, did not have sufficient knowledge early enough to call the army to help.
“The army is called on request of the voivodeship governor, who should have been informed above all by local governments. Madam mayor should have appealed for such help to the voivodeship governor,” stressed the prime minister in her Saturday interview for the state television.
“It is untrue that I did not demand an intervention of the army from the voivodeship governor (I did that as early as on Sunday, the day following the storm), just like untrue are the words of the spokesman and of the prime minister that during the meeting on Tuesday in the crisis management unit in Rytel I did not make any postulates. In fact the situation was just the opposite – there are witnesses of that,” the mayor of Czersk responds to the accusations.
Jolanta Fierek stressed that she did not agree to “an attempt to politicise a tragedy which occurred in my municipality last week.” “I do not accept the practice of apportioning blame and cleaning the image of the government at the expense of hard work of local governments and inhabitants, who in recent days have shown so much good will and readiness to act,” she wrote.
Meeting with the prime minister Szydło
The mayor of Czersk, talking to a reporter of TVN24, spoke about the meeting with the prime minister Beata Szydło, which took place on Tuesday, 15th August. At that meeting Fierek presented to the head of the government the postulates concerning actions which, in her opinion, should have been taken immediately after the storm so as to remove its effects as soon as possible.
“I would like to refer to the words said by the prime minister Szydło that during that meeting the mayor of Czersk presented no postulates. This is untrue, or to put it bluntly: it is a lie,” said Fierek.
The mayor of Czersk reported the issued which she had brought up in the conversation with the prime minister Szydło. Among other things, the lack of help to agricultural farms and the problem of blowdowns at the owners of private forests.
“I also appealed to madam prime minister to exercise pressure through the Financial Supervision Authority on insurance companies so that they react to phone calls and request of the insured and come here on the site,” added the mayor.
“This madam prime minister did not wish to mention. Nor did her spokesman,” she stressed.
Violent storms over Poland
During the night from 11th to 12th August Poland was swept over by fierce storms which cause numerous destructions. The balance of fatalities is six people, including two teenagers who were staying at a scouting camp in the locality of Suszek. 54 people were injured, including 15 fire fighters. Among the locations struck to the greatest extent by the disaster was the municipality of Czersk and the locality of Rytel situated on its territory.
Źródło: tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl