Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia assessed on Wednesday that shameful events had taken place during the protests in front of the Sejm. I don’t believe that it was done by farmers who actually came here to protest, but the group of protesting farmers was joined by groups of provocateurs, masked people – he emphasized.
Hołownia said that “the policemen who defended our safety today deserve our support.”
And the hooligans, not any protesting farmers, just ordinary hooligans who threw paving stones today and behaved in a scandalous manner, should be held accountable – he stressed.
In the afternoon, during the Sejm session, Confederation MP Grzegorz Braun requested a break, convening a seniors’ convention and supplementing the agenda with full information from the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński, regarding – as he said – “the police provocation which in the last hours took place here, in Warsaw, on Wiejska Street and adjacent streets.
He argued that one of the MPs had a recording showing stones being thrown at the demonstrating farmers from the direction of the police line. “Mr. (Confederation MP Sławomir) Mentzen was gassed in the face centrally,” he said. He said there was no point in waiting “for worse things to happen.” He said that the situation required “not only urgent explanations from the minister provocateur, but also urgent action” from the Speaker of the Sejm.
According to Braun, Confederate MPs trying to prevent the situation from escalating became victims of the actions of police officers.
Hołownia, who responded to the MP, addressed the Confederation’s MPs and emphasized that if they have recordings or other materials from these events, he would like to ask them to forward them to the appropriate authorities.
“However, I also observed these incidents in the marshal’s guard monitoring center. I must say that absolutely shameful events took place during this protest. I do not believe that it was done by farmers who actually came here to protest, but clearly they joined the group of protesting farmers groups of provocateurs, masked people who physically violated the bodily integrity of officers,” he said.
Stones were thrown, pyrotechnics were thrown, the police repeatedly asked people to leave the place (they said) that the assembly was illegal, and asked the MPs and senators to leave the place. Several policemen were injured, several dozen people were detained and if we take the slogan “a wall behind the Polish uniform” seriously, we should always take this slogan seriously, he added.
According to Hołownia, “the policemen who defended our safety today deserve our support.” “And the hooligans, not any protesting farmers, but ordinary hooligans who threw paving stones today and behaved in a scandalous manner, should be held accountable,” the Speaker of the Sejm noted.
He said that he and the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm, Piotr Zgorzelski, were waiting for the opportunity to meet the protesters. “But due to what happened, I heard from the organizers that they are unable to select a delegation to meet us,” Hołownia said. In response to voices from the audience that this was not true, he added: “Marshal Zgorzelski was waiting all the time, and as soon as I returned from the swearing-in ceremony of the National Electoral Commission members, I asked where the delegation was.”
“It happened as it happened. Protests are one thing, hooliganism is a completely different thing,” he added.
