The new Civic Platform (PO) Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki, sparked outrage when he declared a “return to normality” in the Senate on social media and attaching a photo of EU flags being installed next to Polish ones on the Senate floor.
Grodzki first announced that he will travel to the United States to personally thank American senators who questioned the rule of law in Poland when they sent a letter for former Prime Minister Beata Szydło during her term.
The Speaker reinstalled European Union flags in the Senate and shared a controversial entry on twitter, declaring a “return to normality” in the Polish parliament’s upper chamber.
“A small gesture of a return to normality – to the family of Western civilization,” Grodzki subtitled the picture of the flags.
Drobny gest powrotu do normalności – do rodziny cywilizacji zachodniej pic.twitter.com/K932ZkqsaM
— Tomasz Grodzki (@profGrodzki) November 13, 2019
Several social media users reacted negatively towards the post with comments, with some pointing out the flaws in Grodzki’s logic.
“Mister Speaker insults us all by proposing the idea that before he became Speaker there was no normality,” a user named Komarand said.
Other commentators pointed out that normality is not decided by flags but rather in ruling the country honestly and fulfilling election promises.
Others criticized the standards in which Grodzki was defining Western civilization and took issue with EU flags being some sort of symbol of it. At the same time, there were some internet users who agreed with the speaker’s flag gesture.
The new speaker later declared he will hold a public address to Poles soon on television.
