“The situation in Poland is one in which the state system is being dismantled by decisions of the parliamentary majority. The Constitution is being violated,” said President of the Republic of Poland Karol Nawrocki when asked about political asylum for Zbigniew Ziobro.
On Monday, one of Zbigniew Ziobro’s defense lawyers, attorney Bartosz Lewandowski, announced that the former minister of justice and prosecutor general under the PiS government had obtained political asylum and international protection in Hungary.
In a post on X, Ziobro wrote that he was “choosing to fight against political banditry and lawlessness” and that he was “resisting the advancing dictatorship” in Poland.
“Therefore, I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland. I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies – which I would have no opportunity to refute – I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland,”
he declared on X.
The governing coalition reacted rather nervously to this information. The Marshal of the Sejm, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, announced the initiation of a procedure aimed at stripping MP Zbigniew Ziobro of his remuneration.
However, in an interview with RMF FM, the former head of the Ministry of Justice admitted that he does not intend to resign his parliamentary mandate.
“I will work hard in Budapest, meet regularly with journalists and the media. I will also launch my YouTube channel to speak the truth and expose the lies of those in power. I will do everything to bring about the downfall of this government,”
he announced.
President Nawrocki: The Constitution is being violated
President Karol Nawrocki was asked about Zbigniew Ziobro’s case during a press conference in London.
“As far as asylum is concerned, that is more a question for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Such a decision was made by the Hungarian state, which had the right to make it. I try not to assess decisions taken autonomously by the leaders of states. I believe that European countries, including the Polish government, will respect it,”
he said.
The president then assessed: “We have a situation in Poland in which the state system is being dismantled by decisions of the parliamentary majority. The Constitution is being violated.”
“If the editor is asking me whether everyone in Poland can count on a fair trial, particularly in light of Minister Żurek’s decision on the unconstitutional change to the system for drawing judges, then the answer is no. Decisions about staying in or leaving the country are decisions made by those individuals,”
he emphasized in his conversation with the media.
He continued: “If the editor wants to ask me whether I would leave Poland, even in the face of the violation of the Polish system of the rule of law by the current authorities, I would not leave. I am a historian, and I know that the Polish system was also violated by the communists after 1945. But there are those who, being unable to count on a fair trial, leave Poland, and the governments of other states decide whether to grant them asylum or not.”