Czarnek Responds to Rokita: 'Is This Just an Entrance Ticket to a Barbecue?'

Polish politician Przemysław Czarnek has sharply criticized Jan Rokita, a former publicist and co-founder of Civic Platform, for his recent commentary on Czarnek's political actions. Rokita, a vocal critic of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, suggested in Rzeczpospolita that Czarnek's efforts aimed to align Poland with an "axis of evil."

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If the facts cannot be challenged, the credibility of the person who gathered them always remains.

Czarnek dismissed Rokita's diagnosis as "extremely dishonest" and a sign that Rokita fails to see true evil or the nuanced nature of reality. He invoked the words of Saint Anthony the Great, suggesting Rokita has not freed himself from the "three wars: of hearing, speech, and sight," and that his critique is harmful. Czarnek stated that Rokita seems unable to grasp that advocating for Poland's geostrategic interests is compatible with simultaneously seeking historical truth and respect for Poles.

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Jan Rokita, who put forward an extremely dishonest diagnosis of my actions in Rzeczpospolita, has unfortunately not freed himself from the cited three wars.

"A good strategist does not choose between fronts, but manages them," Czarnek argued, asserting there is no contradiction in working towards Russia's defeat in Ukraine while also demanding honesty from Kyiv in its relations with Poland. He emphasized that the PiS party has always correctly identified threats posed by Russian imperialism, citing warnings from the late President Lech Kaczyński and party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, even when Donald Tusk, a former colleague of Rokita's, advocated for appeasement with Russia.

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A good strategist does not choose between fronts, but manages them, therefore there is no contradiction in taking actions that will lead to Russia's defeat in its war with Ukraine, and in demanding honesty from the authorities in Kyiv in relations with Poland.

Czarnek highlighted that the PiS government provided significant aid to Ukraine, driven by the understanding, particularly acute in eastern Poland near the conflict zone, that an aggressive Putin poses a mortal threat. However, he stressed that this support was not unconditional. Czarnek reiterated his long-held belief that aid to Ukraine must proceed in parallel with the pursuit of truth regarding the Volhynia massacre and the historical treatment of Poles by Ukraine.

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The Law and Justice party has always had the right diagnosis of the threats posed by Russian imperialism.