Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s trip to the Polish-Belarusian border at the weekend, during which he praised the border guards and offered them his support, was a breathtaking act of hypocrisy that has not gone unnoticed.
Polish social media was flooded with users reminding Donald Tusk he had previously said the barrier on the border was unnecessary and that it would never get built anyway, hinting that it was all about self-interest for the people who were to construct it.
Commentators also recalled what Tusk previously said about the Belarusian hybrid attack, when the Lukashenko regime facilitated thousands of attempted illegal border crossings. When in opposition, Tusk said, “There is no need to make anti-migrant propaganda because these people need help,” even though he knew that this was an organized attempt to breach the Polish border and destabilize Poland.
Left and liberal MPs, who visited the border during conservative rule to try and intimidate border guards and help NGOs attempting to get migrants into Poland, showed no understanding of the need for state security. Pro-opposition media outlets were full of stories of heroic refugees and oppressive border guards, many of which turned out to be exaggerated or fake.
Well-known Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland even made “Green Border,” a film based on such stories, which defamed border guards and Poland itself. One scene in the film depicted border guards throwing a thermos flask containing broken glass at migrants, portraying the guards as inhuman barbarians.
Tusk is right to be supporting the border guards now, but basic decency demands that he should apologize for what he and his party did and said during the border crisis. He should also apologize for his attacks on those who commissioned and built the border barriers that now protect Poland from Belarusian hybrid attacks. Without such fortifications, thousands would have come across a new human trafficking trail and spread all over Europe.
Tusk thinks people have short memories, but the comments underneath his social media posts show that he is mistaken. People have not forgotten and the mountains of hypocrisy on display are a source of great irritation to many Poles.
