Former health minister Adam Niedzielski has been taken to hospital after being attacked by two assailants who first shouted “treason” at him, evidently out of anger over restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic.
Niedzielski was health minister during the lifetime of the last Conservative (PiS) government and was the face of restrictions which were imposed by his ministry during the pandemic.
The incident took place on August 27 outside a restaurant in the eastern city of Siedlce.
Police have confirmed that Niedzielski was attacked by two unidentified perpetrators for political reasons. The men, according to commercial broadcaster RMF FM, shouted abuse and accused him of having committed treason.
The former health minister was approached by the pair after leaving the restaurant. After haranguing Niedzielski one of the men lunged with his fists.
Niedzielski was taken to the local hospital which later reported that his injuries did not appear to be serious and that it was unlikely that he would spend time in hospital.
Reacting to the incident on X, former PiS prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote that “this is what political hate can do. It’s time for a wake-up call.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk also took to X and wrote that “there will be no mercy for the perpetrators. They will be caught and punished severely.”
As polarisation has gathered pace between Liberals and Conservatives over the past two decades, there have been two tragic cases of politically inspired murders.
The first featured an assistant in the PiS office in Łodz 2011 who was killed by a man who confessed to the police that he wanted to kill the PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński.
The second was the mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, who was stabbed to death on stage during a charity event by an assailant who later admitted that he was taking revenge on Tusk’s party for “Having sent him to prison”.
Despite heated online exchanges and shouting matches in TV studios there has been no violence in the parliamentary chamber and the vast majority of political demonstrations in Poland have been peaceful.
