“At the request of the prosecutor’s office, I have revoked Zbigniew Z.’s diplomatic passport,” announced Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. He was, of course, referring to the document belonging to former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. The head of the foreign ministry revealed his decision at a very deliberate moment.
Since Sunday, the government has been facing a wave of criticism for allowing acts of sabotage on railway lines. Fuel was added to the fire when, according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s statement on Tuesday, the men responsible had already fled Poland.
Supporters under the hashtag #silnirazem (eng. StrongerTogether) are applauding Sikorski’s move. But other X users are also commenting. This second group argues that the government should focus on more serious matters than pursuing the opposition.
“Right, because we clearly have no other problems in this country besides Zbigniew Z.’s passport,” one user writes. “Russian saboteurs breeze through border crossings legally with Ukrainian passports, and you’re wasting time on nonsense,” another adds.
People are also asking how Sikorski’s decision will affect the fulfillment of the much-touted ‘100 specifics for 100 days’promises or how it will improve the currently disastrous condition of the healthcare system.
“The ABW has no time for terrorists”
The person being pursued commented on the government’s priorities himself. “Saboteurs working for Moscow – one of them convicted for this in Ukraine – are still freely entering Poland from hostile Belarus. They buy SIM cards here, organize the blowing up of railway tracks, then pack their bags, their footwraps, and head back to Belarus. Nobody stops them. Nobody even asks who they are. This is a disgrace for the state,” Ziobro wrote on X.
He added: “The ABW has no time for terrorists because, on Tusk’s orders, it is busy harassing the opposition. Dozens of agents searched my house for almost an entire day; such searches are now taking place by the dozens. That’s hundreds of ABW officers taken away from dealing with real threats.”
“And here we get to the heart of the matter: the biggest saboteur serving Putin in Poland today is Tusk. For the sake of personal revenge, he accuses us of acquiring modern technology and deploys hundreds of counterintelligence-trained officers to fight the opposition. He sacrifices the health and lives of Poles for this revenge,” he declared.
Ziobro had already spoken earlier about the railway sabotage case. At that time, he stated that when Poland was governed by the United Right, a group planning an attack was successfully apprehended. Pegasus, a system whose purchase is now the basis for charges against the former justice minister, played a key role in that operation.