The presidential debate aired on the state-run TVP (currently undergoing liquidation) opened with a sharp rebuke. Krzysztof Stanowski, one of the candidates, launched a fierce verbal attack against the debate’s moderator, journalist Dorota Wysocka-Schnepf.
The first question posed to the candidates was: “Do you have any policy points that may be unpopular but which you’re still willing to implement because the national interest comes first?” However, Stanowski chose to respond quite differently.
“I’m very pleased to be here, in this temple of propaganda, and especially pleased to see before me the high priestess of propaganda,” said Stanowski. “I honestly thought you’d burn with shame after most of the electoral committees protested your presence here tonight, but clearly I expected too much—some people simply don’t burn with shame.”
He went on: “It’s not the first time someone with the name Schnepf is interrogating Poles—I just hope we make it out of here in one piece.”
“But it’s good that you’re here,” he added, “because you are the very symbol of what has happened to Polish media. The fact that the current head of TVP used to manage a bus company under Trzaskowski. The fact that your husband is waiting on an ambassadorial appointment from the new president—we can guess which one.”
“This is not objectivity. You shouldn’t be here,” Stanowski concluded. “I had to say this on behalf of all the campaign teams that opposed your participation.”