"They are receiving support from an army of Russian bots": Tusk says Russia is interfering in the conflict in Poland
Kyiv • UNN
Donald Tusk accused pro-Russian forces of interfering in the conflict surrounding Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal. According to the prime minister, the pro-Russian forces are receiving support from an army of Russian bots.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that pro-Russian forces had interfered in the conflict surrounding the country’s Constitutional Tribunal. This was reported by UNN.
Details
Tusk recorded a video address after overnight riots near the Tribunal building in Warsaw. He said that for many years Poland had had politicians and organizations seeking to destroy democracy and the rule of law.
It is no coincidence that they find support around the world among pro-Russian forces. And today, in this conflict, they are enjoying the support of an army of Russian bots on the internet. What is more, they have even received public compliments from the Kremlin’s chief ideologue
He also accused the country’s president, Karol Nawrocki, and the Law and Justice party of blocking changes to the Tribunal’s operations and stressed that Poland must not give up the independent democracy it had fought so long to achieve.
Context
On Friday, October 30, Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short his visit to Senegal and returned to Warsaw after the head of Poland’s Constitutional Court was suspended from office and protests began in the country.
At the same time, police clashed with protesters near the building of Poland’s Constitutional Court after its chief judge was suspended from office, as The Guardian notes, amid the latest escalation in a decade-long dispute over the court’s legal status.
The clashes took place after a controversial decision by a group of government-appointed judges to suspend the disputed head of the court, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, against the backdrop of disagreements over the legitimacy of this panel.
The move provoked a furious reaction from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party (PiS), whose leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, condemned what he called an "attack" on the court.