European Council President Donald Tusk
Photo: AFP
EU's Tusk warns Poland must stop anti-Semitic remarks
Former Polish PM and current Council of Europe President Donald Tusk says discussions with other European leaders showed situation of Warsaw was 'very serious,' adds he has spoken with current PM Morawiecki about matter; Anti-Semitic sentiment 'has direct impact on Polish interests, Poland's reputation and Poland's standing in the world,' Tusk adds.
Poland's ruling party must do everything it can to stop anti-Semitic remarks that are hurting Poland’s standing in the world and putting its interests at risk, European Council President Donald Tusk told a news conference on Friday.
"There is only one solution. Everything needs to be done to stop... the wave of bad opinions about Poland, which today resembles a tsunami, and the second wave of silly and indecent incidents, anti-Semitic statements in Poland," he said.
Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said after he met Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that discussions with other European leaders showed the situation of Warsaw was "very serious."
"I told the prime minister the situation... has a direct impact on Polish interests, Poland's reputation and Poland's standing in the world," Tusk said, adding that Morawiecki understood that.
Council of Europe President Tusk said the wave of anti-Polish sentiment in the world more resembled a tsunami (Photo: EPA)
"The ruling party has all the instruments to stop both these waves if it really wants to. We have all worked hard... over the last 30 years on good relations of Poland with the world, including Israel and the Jewish community. We cannot allow someone to ruin all that within a few weeks," he said.
"It is not too late for concrete action, just as it is not too late for common human decency," he said.
Poland angered Israel, the United States and Ukraine in February when it passed a law that imposes prison sentences of up to three years on anyone using the phrase "Polish death camps," or for suggesting "publicly and against the facts" that the "Polish nation" or state was complicit in Nazi Germany’s crimes.
Polish PM Morawiecki told Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman that there were also 'Jewish perpetrators' in the Holocaust (Photo: AP)
Speaking to journalists at a conference of world leaders in Munich last Saturday, Morawiecki further angered international opinion by suggesting Jews themselves had a hand in the Holocaust.
Asked by Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman to explain the law, Morawiecki said, "It's extremely important to first understand that of course it won't be punishable or seen as a crime to say that there were Polish perpetrators as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian and Ukrainian perpetrators, not only German perpetrators.
"Polish embassies had to react 260 times in 2017 alone with regards to the expression 'Polish death camps' or 'Polish concentration camps.' Well, ladies and gentlemen, there were no Polish death camps or concentration camps. There were German Nazi death camps.
Polish PM Morawiecki's conversation with Ronen Bergman
"The mere fact that we have to explain it today stems from our history. For 50 years after the Second World War—45 to be exact—we couldn't defend our case. There was no Polish independent state."
Naming "Jewish perpetrators" in the same breath as Nazis triggered outrage in Israel and added to growing concern about the rise in nationalism in Poland and tacit government support for far-right views since the Law and Justice (PiS) government took power in late 2015.
