“I think it was a deliberate decision by Donald Tusk not to be in Poland on that day. In order to have a pretext not to listen directly to what President Karol Nawrocki was saying,” said Paweł Jabłoński, an MP from Law and Justice (PiS) and former deputy head of Polish diplomacy, on TV Republika, commenting on the absence of the prime minister and the Speaker of the Sejm from the May 3rd celebrations.
On Sunday, Warsaw hosted the celebrations marking the 235th anniversary of the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution. At the Royal Castle, the head of state presented state decorations. The Order of the White Eagle was awarded by the president to Andrzej Poczobut, who had been honored last year during Independence Day on November 11. The president also appointed the Council for a New Constitution.
However, prominent politicians from the ruling camp did not take part in the celebrations. Among those absent were Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Speaker of the Sejm Włodzimierz Czarzasty.
Anna Maria Żukowska from the New Left (Nowa Lewica) was asked today about the reason for Czarzasty’s absence. She replied: “No one from the coalition took part in these celebrations.” She was then asked whether the decision not to participate had been deliberate.
“That was the decision. […] It was a coalition arrangement – I don’t know exactly what it was based on, but that was the agreement,” she stated.
May 3rd celebrations without Tusk and Czarzasty
Donald Tusk’s “excuse” for not attending the national holiday celebrations was his departure for Armenia. Paweł Jabłoński, former deputy foreign minister, was asked about the prime minister’s stance on TV Republika.
“We should maintain relations with Armenia regardless of who governs there and what decisions are made. But the fact that on the day of the most important national holiday – apart from November 11 – Donald Tusk does something like this shows that he does not feel any strong connection to Polish identity or our history, to consider his presence in the country as head of government on that day to be important. It shows how this man thinks about himself and his ties to Polish identity,” he said.
He described it as an “interesting case from a political and psychological point of view.”
Asked how foreign visits by politicians are arranged, he replied: “Generally, if the other side proposes a date for a visit, they indicate a specific day. Let’s be clear – Armenia is not obliged to know the calendar of Polish national holidays, although in reality the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies remain in contact. The Armenian embassy in Poland knows when national holidays take place. Setting a visit for this particular day seems diplomatically awkward – if someone from the other side insisted on it. And I doubt that Armenia insisted on it.”
“I think it was a deliberate decision by Donald Tusk not to be in Poland on that day. In order to have a pretext not to listen directly to what President Karol Nawrocki was saying. And the fact that the president speaks is a tradition – it has always been this way. Tusk clearly has a problem with listening to what the president says. So it was a very convenient excuse for him,” he added.
He spoke in a similar tone about Włodzimierz Czarzasty’s absence from the celebrations.
“There is no justification here. I don’t think anyone had particularly high expectations of this man. A man who, immediately after the introduction of martial law, joined the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). He decided that was the party he wanted to belong to. He has remained loyal to that party – to communists and post-communists – his entire life. His traditions have nothing to do with the May 3rd Constitution. Except perhaps that all manifestations of Polish identity and independence were opposed by people from his political camp. So perhaps he would simply feel uncomfortable. Another person who very much dislikes listening when President Nawrocki says things that are very inconvenient for them,” he assessed.