The deputy speaker of the Polish Sejm responded to comments by Ukrainian politicians on Polish farmers’ protests in the “Guest of Events” programme.
The presenter Bohdan Rymanowski asked the PSL representative about his position on the farmers’ protests that started on Friday. On Monday, protesters spilled grain from three Ukrainian lorries near Dorohusk onto the road.
Piotr Zgorzelski stated:
“Every decent Pole should support our farmers, our breadwinners in the protest, which has two vectors of action, said the deputy speaker of the Sejm. Firstly, it is a protest against the uncontrolled flow of food from Ukraine. It is a scandal that such a thing can happen, that food products, which have a competitive price and nobody knows their chemical composition, end up in Poland.”
The farmers’ protests, he said, also arose against the “scandalous agricultural policy pursued by PiS”. As he noted, talks between current Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski and farmers “show that politics can be done with an open door”. He is also expected to say at a meeting with EU officials that the flow of grain from Ukraine across the Polish border should be cut off. The presenter asked Zgorzelski how he felt about protesters dumping Ukrainian grain on the road. The deputy speaker reasoned:
“Such actions are the result of their desperation, I will always stand on the side of Polish farmers, not like the previous government. I concede they may be desperate, they are running their farms as a business and they are being told to reduce crops, to fertilise.”
Bohdan Rymanovsky then asked about the words of Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s deputy economy minister, who demanded an end to Monday’s protests.
Taras Kachka wrote in a statement:
“Otherwise, tomorrow Rafal Mekler and his gang will start killing Ukrainians for being Ukrainians. Unfortunately, this is not speculation. A month ago Poland recalled the murder of the president of Gdansk because of political hatred.”
Zgorzelski stated on this issue:
“He should have tempered his remarks because Ukraine has not had, does not have and will not have such a loyal friend as Poland. Please, Mr. Minister of Economy of Ukraine, do not insult Polish farmers here, because you are on your way to spoiling good relations. We Poles testify to our friendship and that we are on the right side, but we also want to tell our friends fighting for their freedom that joining the EU should also take into account our economic and agricultural situation.”
The deputy speaker added that the neighbour’s failure to join the community should not “lead to the bankruptcy of Polish farms”. Zgorzelski also referred to the words of Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who called the participants in the agricultural protests “pro-Russian provocateurs”.
The politician stated:
“I advise Lviv Mayor Sadovyi to drink a glass of water before saying anything, because it often seems that Mayor Sadovyi speaks in the Bandera language, which should not exist in Ukraine. It is no secret that this myth of national identity among many Ukrainians is still in force, he added, referring to extremes on Ukrainian territory”.
