At pre-election meetings, Law and Justice politicians use false messages previously used in the parliamentary campaign – but they also add new ones. The narrative about the “December 13 coalition” is one of them. Mateusz Morawiecki also referred to this in Lubartów.
During a meeting in Lubartów on February 10, 2024, PiS vice-president and former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki talked about the successes of his government and suggested that the current one wants to squander it, and that the currently ruling coalition has deceived voters. “Did they go to the elections with such a program: we will let illegal immigrants in here, into Poland?” – he asked rhetorically. And he replied: “No, they didn’t go to the elections with such a program, but they did they agreed to this at the Council of the European Union in December. At the European Council. They agreed to this as soon as they took over. Since the topic was revived, [od] June last year.” Morawiecki continued: “At several European councils I placed a firm veto. As soon as we finished our reign on December 13. December 12th, and they on the 13th… [zaczęli]. They also chose a date, True. They started on December 13. Prime Minister Tusk went to Brussels and did not veto the migration pact there. They didn’t tell voters about it.”
In this one fragment of his speech, Mateusz Morawiecki was untrue three times.
READ IN KONKRET24: “Morawiecki’s Untruth” series
“December 13 Coalition”? NO. “October 15 Coalition”
PiS’s use of the term “December 13 coalition” – by referring to December 13, 1981, the day martial law was declared in Poland – is intended to evoke bad connotations and aversion to the current government. It also suggests that Donald Tusk’s government has downright dictatorial tendencies. This message has been in force in PiS since the swearing-in of Donald Tusk’s coalition government.
Indeed, it took place on December 13, 2023. Right away that day on the Law and Justice profile an illustration was published on the
PiS’s narrative about the “December 13 coalition” is one of the main false messages of the party now in opposition x.com
The “December 13 Coalition” took power in Poland. A symbolic date that carries dramatic events, but also announcements of violations of the Constitution and the rule of law by the new government. These are threats against, for example, the Constitutional Tribunal, the National Council of the Judiciary, the National Bank of Poland, TVP and its journalists,” she wrote on the X website PiS MEP Beata Mazurek. And PiS MP Krzysztof Szczucki (former head of the Government Legislation Center) said on December 13 last year on Polish Radio: “Tusk’s coalition is a coalition of December 13 – revenge and eight stars.”
But did Tusk’s government “choose this date”? – as Morawiecki said. NO. It was not the winning coalition that decided that the swearing-in of Donald Tusk’s government would take place on the 42nd anniversary of martial law.
Andrzej Dera, Secretary of State in the President’s Chancellery, already talked about December 13 as the date of the swearing-in of the new government in November. IN “Facts after Facts” On November 22, 2023, he was asked about the possible dates of appointing Donald Tusk’s government if Mateusz Morawiecki’s government did not receive a vote of confidence. “I think that the most realistic date, probably the first possible one, will be December 13. Because the 12th [grudnia] Mr. President is returning from Geneva. It is possible 13-14 [grudnia]so there are no obstacles to this happening,” said the presidential minister.
The context was important here: a European Union summit was planned for December 14 and 15, at which the new prime minister should have appeared.
“December 13, i.e. St. Lucy’s Day. A holiday of sun and light. A nice date for a good start. Some people celebrate it by sleeping until noon” – this is how Donald Tusk (then candidate for prime minister put forward by KO, Polska 2050, PSL) ironically commented on the planned swearing-in date and the New Left). It was known when Donald Tusk’s government would finally be sworn in on December 11 – on that day, Mateusz Morawiecki’s government did not receive a vote of confidence, and the Sejm then elected Donald Tusk as prime minister. The head of the presidential office, Grażyna Ignaczak-Bandych, announced on the X platform: “At the invitation of President Andrzej Duda, after the vote in the Sejm, a meeting was held with Prime Minister Donald Tusk. It was agreed that after obtaining a vote of confidence, the swearing-in of the new government would take place on Wednesday, December 13 at 9:00 a.m. at the Presidential Palace.
Donald Tusk’s reaction to the information about the swearing-in of the government on December 13, 2023 x.com
However, as for what the ruling coalition calls itself, it uses the term “coalition of October 15” – because on that day elections to the Sejm and Senate were held, as a result of which four parties gained a parliamentary majority. And Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke about the “coalition of October 15” in his expose on December 12, 2023: “Voters selected a new government coalition, which we will be – in fact, it started yesterday – if you allow us, from today we will call it the ‘coalition of October 15′” . The same name was used in the debate on the expose, among others. PSL leader Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Michał Kobosko from Poland 2050 and Wanda Nowicka from the New Left. Therefore, Morawiecki’s statement is false.
There was no “hard veto” from Morawiecki
The former prime minister in Lubartów also said that he “put a strong veto” on illegal immigration during EU summits. It wasn’t the first time he talked about it. We verified this at Konkret24 after the debate on October 9, 2023 on TVP, when Morawiecki stated: “It was I who placed a strong veto against illegal immigration at the European Council.”
It was about a draft EU regulation, which states that the relocation of immigrants from another Member State is only one of three ways of participating in the solidarity mechanism – instead, countries subjected to migration pressure can be supported financially or operationally. This last form of support means, for example, sending Polish border guards to help patrol the external borders of the European Union. Moreover, contrary to the claims repeated by PiS politicians, the draft Commission regulation states that relocation is “voluntary”.
Meanwhile, as TVN24’s Brussels correspondent Maciej Sokołowski reported, the Prime Minister’s veto at the informal EU summit in Granada on October 5-6, 2023 concerned only the refusal to include a general, non-binding paragraph on migration in the summit declaration. The paragraph to which Morawiecki did not agree was later adopted as a declaration by the head of the Council and had no impact on the work on the pact. The paragraph concerns partnerships with countries of origin; border protection; fighting human trafficking and smuggling and the instrumentalization of migration as a hybrid threat; intensification of returns.
Poland’s position: “will be against individual legislative acts included in the Pact on Migration and Asylum”
In Lubartów, Morawiecki also repeated the previous claims of PiS politicians that “Tusk did not veto the migration pact.” This message appeared on December 20, 2023, after the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on the five key regulations that make up the Migration Pact.
As we explained in Konkret24, these agreed regulations concern, among others: creating uniform rules for identifying non-EU citizens upon their arrival; creating a common database on illegal border crossings; increasing the effectiveness of asylum and return procedures; establishing a new solidarity mechanism between member states “to counterbalance the current system in which a few countries are responsible for the vast majority of asylum applications.”
Mateusz Morawiecki is wrong when he says that “Tusk did not veto” the migration pact – because representatives of the current government did not participate in the arrangements for the regulations. The negotiations were led by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission played an advisory role. The procedure stipulates that negotiators do not represent all member states. On behalf of the European Parliament, only the chairman or vice-chairman of the parliamentary committee responsible for a given proposal and rapporteurs from each political group that wishes to participate in the talks. However, the EU Council is represented only by representatives of the country that currently holds the EU presidency – then it was Spain.
The lack of presence of Polish representatives in these negotiations is confirmed by the Polish announcement Ministry of Interior and Administration of February 8(issued two days before the meeting in Lubartów), in which it was written: “Interinstitutional negotiations on the Pact ended on December 20, 2023, i.e. a week after the swearing-in of the current Government of the Republic of Poland. Therefore, the current Government emphasizes that it could not participate in the work on Pact on Migration and Asylum, and considers the result of the work carried out by the previous Government to be highly insufficient.
As reported by the Ministry of Interior and Administration, “Poland, during the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of Member States in the Council of the European Union, which took place on February 8, 2024, announced that it would be against individual legislative acts included in the Pact on Migration and Asylum.” The communiqué also states that “the solutions provided for in the Pact on Migration and Asylum do not sufficiently address the specific situation of countries bordering Belarus and Russia, and thus under constant and strong pressure within artificially generated migration routes.” This therefore contradicts Morawiecki’s thesis that the current government “agrees with Brussels on everything” regarding illegal immigration.
Source of the main photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło