“It’s time to get up off your knees, gentlemen,” Donald Tusk wrote on the X platform. In his post, he tagged President Karol Nawrocki and the leader of Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński. In the comments, users reminded the prime minister of numerous situations in which he himself had “knelt,” including before German politicians. The president also responded, writing: “Give me a break, Mr Prime Minister—you’ve been kneeling for three decades, from Berlin to Brussels. It happened in Moscow as well…”
Recent days have been filled with numerous events in Poland and around the world, including a forceful entry into the headquarters of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), a three-day sitting of the Sejm following Brussels’ decision on the Mercosur agreement, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. As the opposition wondered where Donald Tusk had “disappeared” amid all this, it turned out that the prime minister was skiing in Italy.
Tusk writes about “getting up off one’s knees”
Nevertheless, the head of government remains active on social media and on Saturday posted another entry attacking President Karol Nawrocki and PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński.
“It’s time to get up off your knees, Nawrocki and Kaczyński. People are watching,” he wrote. In reality, this was yet another anti-American provocation by Tusk.
The president’s counter
President Nawrocki responded to Tusk’s post.
“Give me a break, Mr Prime Minister—you’ve been kneeling for three decades, from Berlin to Brussels. It happened in Moscow as well…” he shot back.
He continued: “There really are places in the world where no one expects you to kneel. Those are just your bad habits.”
Internet users react
The two sentences published by the prime minister also stirred up internet users, who in the comments recalled the submissive attitude of the post’s author, including toward German and EU politicians. His past statements about cooperation with Russia also resurfaced.
Former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki commented: “Strong words from a man who has worn out a dozen pairs of trousers before Brussels and German masters. Why do you do this to yourself, Donald?”
Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, a PiS MP, asked: “Mr Prime Minister, did you perhaps hit your head hard while skiing in the Italian Dolomites?”
Michał Woś, a former deputy minister of justice, reminded Tusk of a photo showing him—while serving as President of the European Council—helping the then head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, put on his jacket. The same politician who repeatedly attacked the United States while professing the principle that “Russia must be treated decently.” “People watched with pity as you put a jacket on a drunk, but you still boarded the last carriage. That’s how no one plays you in Europe,” Woś wrote.