Donald Tusk: Silesia can be a leader in obtaining European money, and it is also here that investments should be made, for example, in nuclear energy

Eight years of PO rule means 5 closed mines, seven years of PiS rule – 14 in liquidation, of which 7 are definitely closed – said the head of PO Donald Tusk in Bytom. He emphasized that Silesia can become a leader in obtaining European funds and that it is in Silesia that investments should be made, for example, in the development of nuclear energy.

During the Friday meeting with the inhabitants of Bytom, Tusk said, among other things, that Silesia is still the undisputed treasure of the Republic of Poland, that “it cannot be milked” and that it is not enough to come and promise something and do little.

He also referred to the promises of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, PiS MP from Silesia, regarding a million electric cars. Today, as Tusk said, it can be talked about as Radio Yerevan’s jokes.

“This is a joke that has a lot to do with the situation in Jaworzno. I listen to the PiS minister on the radio, who says that electric cars are being built in the Jizera Mountains. I remember Morawiecki saying that there would be a million of them by 2025 or 2026. Everything is correct, only not in the Jizera Mountains, but in Jaworzno, not a million, but a hundred thousand, not electricians, but cut down trees,” Tusk said.

He also referred to the fact that Morawiecki used to be his adviser. “Just because I don’t have the nature of a man who is indiscreet … If I said today what Morawiecki said then about his current employers … I was less critical of PiS and Kaczyński than Mateusz Morawiecki. Well, but everyone has the right to change their views, only a cow does not change their views, said Tusk.

He also referred to the issue of coal and mines. “I know what emotions there were here in Silesia, in Bytom, when the mines were closed. Do you want to know the statistics? Eight years of PO’s rule – five mines closed, seven years of PiS’s rule, fourteen in liquidation, seven of them definitely closed,” said the head of PO.

In his opinion, Silesia can become a leader in obtaining European funds if it becomes a “leader of energy transformation”. According to Tusk, it is here that, for example, biogas plants should be built. “Production of what is modern, what concerns alternative energy sources, but also more modern and more ecological use of coal, nuclear energy, we must install all this here in Silesia as far as possible,” Tusk said.

He also repeated that “PiS must be removed from power so that law and justice prevail in Poland, but not to take revenge on someone, but to make people at the bottom believe that the authorities are responsible for something.”

“I will not forgive those who hurt other people. Not me, Poland will not forgive those who stole in such a brazen way that the eyes and teeth hurt, those who hurt a mother whose child committed suicide. This is not vindictiveness,” said the PO leader.

“If someone hurts another human being, he must suffer the consequences. But the fact that people responsible for evil must bear the consequences does not mean that we, people who were not directly involved in it, were to kill each other,” said Tusk. “This is a very important task, holding the authorities accountable for crimes cannot mean a constant cold civil war between people,” he added.

In his speech, the head of the PO referred, inter alia, to also to the case of the possession of weapons by the Minister of Justice, Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro. According to Tusk, “we have been living in Poland for many years, where the cult of violence is increasingly promoted by people of power in the highest positions”, and this is happening in a situation where “the basic rules of democracy are increasingly violated”, there is less and less freedom of speech and a party that constantly creates the impression of a sharp conflict and attack on someone.

If it comes to this – added Tusk – the minister of justice, the prosecutor general, who “demonstrates that he has a pistol in his belt”, and he has protection, so it’s not a question of his safety, it’s about giving a sign. “It’s about a clear sign: I am created for violence to become a permanent feature of public life, and he has documented it more than once,” Tusk said. (PAP)

authors: Piotr Śmiłowicz, Krzysztof Konopka

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