The leader of the main liberal opposition Civic Platform (PO), Donald Tusk, responded to the news of Wagner Group mercenaries in Belarus by accusing the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) of planning to use their presence to avoid holding this autumn’s parliamentary elections, and called on people to demonstrate on Oct. 1 to avoid this scenario.
These were totally unfounded allegations. It is clear that the Wagner Group is in Belarus for a purpose and that it is a threat, possibly a threat pre-planned by the Kremlin. What cannot be doubted is that these are hardened fighters trained to destabilize countries. It really is playing with fire to attempt to use them as bargaining chips in internal politics.
The PO, right from the outset of the hybrid warfare launched by Belarus, has been behaving totally irresponsibly. Its MPs have been arguing that the illegal migrants should be let in, two MPs tried to outrun border guards to reach the migrants with pizza, and an MEP claimed that border guards are leaving people to die in the forests.
The liberals also opposed the construction of the wall on the border and doubted it would be built. Tusk even accused the government that it would spend the money without building the wall as all it wanted was to make migration a big issue in order for people to fear migrants.
This is not the first time Tusk has helped Russia. The reset of 2008 he so enthusiastically endorsed emboldened the Putin regime, and the PO leader did not learn the lesson from that mistake. He is playing a cynical game on the border with Belarus.
It is a game that assists in Putin’s disinformation campaign. One must hope the voters will see through this and punish Tusk for it.
