Euro MPs on a visit to Warsaw accused Poland’s education minister Przemysław Czarnek of behaving in a “brutal and aggressive” manner towards them, according to Polish media.
MEPs from the assembly’s committee for culture and education, who were in Poland to investigate allegations of violations of academic, artistic and media freedom, were said to have been “shocked” by the minister’s views.
The meeting, at the request of the Parliament committee, followed criticism by the minister of the activities of Prof. Barbara Engelking, who after researching the history of Polish-Jewish relations to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Jewish ghetto uprising, concluded that Poles did too little to help the Jews during the Second World War.
According to Sabine Verheyen, a Euro MP from the European People’s Party, the delegation was taken aback by Czarnek’s frankness on the issue of funding academic research. He reportedly told them that as a minister he had a right to take decisions on funding and to reject funding for research which, in his opinion, defamed Poland.
In Verheyen’s view Czarnek was “brutal and aggressive” during the meeting and picked on her for having forefathers who massacred Poles. He reportedly “screamed” at one of her female colleagues, telling her to stop laughing.
The MEP’s account does however seem to have been contradicted by a release of the audio recording of the event by Czarnek.
In it, the minister claims Engelking’s remarks were based on opinion rather than fact and robust research.
He told MEPs that as long as Engelking stayed within the boundaries of academic discourse rather than politics and polemics there would be “no problem”. He also defended his record on academic freedom, saying that “the sphere of academic freedom has increased on my watch as education minister”. Conservative academics, the minister pointed out, had been “insulted and disciplined for defending the traditional family model based on marriage between man and woman.”
The ruling Conservative PiS government has been sensitive to criticism of Poland’s actions during the war, preferring instead to promote the narrative of Polish heroism and to accentuate the losses suffered by Poles. The academic institute which employs prof. Engelking has had its funding reduced.
Addressing Verheyen he said: “Madame chair, history is not a matter of points of view but of established facts. When I observe that you are a representative of a nation which in this city behaved in a rather black and white manner, that we are here in a building which during the war housed the Gestapo HQ, and that your forefathers carried out massacres here, I am simply stating facts.”
He continued: “It’s also clear who was saving lives and who was doing the killing. If in one nation there were lots of heroes whereas in another lots of killers, then this is how it is. It’s not a question of narrative, but one of facts.”
The audio recording also put into question the allegation that the minister shouted at an MEP. “Your laughter is indicative of a lack of understanding of the issue, but that is your business,” he said. Laughing at a host by guests could be considered to be disrespectful, he said.
Verheyen said that the meetings and the delegation’s report would not be the end of the matter and that this is likely to be the beginning of another conflict between Poland and EU institutions.
Verheyen told Polish independent media Oko.press that “media freedom is under attack in Poland and the EU cannot accept that”. Poland has to respect values of the EU such as academic and media freedoms, she said.
Ilana Cicurel MEP, a member of President Macron’s party who sits with the Renew Europe in the European Parliament, compared the situation in Poland to that in Hungary. “Look at Hungary and you are looking into what the future holds for Poland. Poland has not reached that stage yet and this is why we can still act.”
The MEPs’ visit looks to have prepared the ground for another conflict between Brussels and Warsaw. The two are embroiled in disputes over Polish judicial reforms. The European Commission has frozen Polish EU Recovery Funds.
