At the start of today’s session of the Sejm, a heated argument broke out, culminating in a moment when Roman Giertych (Civic Coalition, KO) and Jarosław Kaczyński (chairman of Law and Justice, PiS) both appeared at the lectern. Photos of the two politicians together quickly went viral. A KO MP—Józefaciuk—used these images to post a mocking remark online.
“New high school graduation problem: Knowing that the PiS chairman’s height is 1.68 m, calculate the KO MP’s height,” wrote Józefaciuk. The backlash against him was immediate.
“We’re making fun of both men’s heights. What a riot, right? (But at whose expense? Ha, ha, ha…). Let me remind you that Mr. Józefaciuk was/is a teacher… Sir, you’ve shown yourself to be a very small man,” wrote Olsztyn councilor Marcin Możdżonek, a former member of Poland’s national volleyball team (who stands at 211 cm tall).
“A teacher and an MP mocking someone’s height. One might be short, but you are simply small,” added Jakub Wiech, questioning whether Józefaciuk had similarly mocked his own students as a teacher.
Facing a wave of criticism, MP Józefaciuk finally backed down.
“Indeed, my last post was neither in good taste nor did it contribute anything substantive. Emotions are never good advisers. I apologize,” he wrote, later admitting that his words were “rude and hateful.” The KO MP has since deleted the controversial post from X (formerly Twitter).