Bishop tells Brussels to keep quiet

A Polish bishop has taken the president of the European Parliament to task for suggesting Poland’s newly elected right-wing government seized power in a coup, writes Josef Pazderka.

In an open letter, Bishop Wieslaw Mering of Wloclawek accused Martin Schulz of pettiness and political correctness for voicing support for government opponents who claimed that Poland’s new leaders were interfering with the constitution and public service broadcasters.

 “What is happening in Poland has the character of a coup d’etat. I assume in January we will have to discuss this extensively in the Parliament,” Mr Schulz, who is German, told Deutschlandfunk radio last month.

In his letter Bishop Mering told Mr Schulz: “The problem is that those who had been in power do not want to surrender to the verdict of the elections and are using, for their own interests, the European Parliament.” The Law and Justice party won a parliamentary majority in October 2015.

“There are no politicians today in Brussels of a higher class, or people seeking the common good of societies making up the EU,” Bishop Mering told Mr Schulz. “Political correctness coupled with pettiness is not conducive to wisdom. It is a pity you, as Mr [former French president Jacques] Chirac once quipped, ‘missed an opportunity to keep quiet’.”

Last week Günther Oettinger, a German EU commissioner, said Warsaw should be put under EU rule-of-law supervision. Justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro dismissed this as “silly”, questioning Berlin’s dubious record on media freedoms. Polish Church leaders generally shy away from open support of the Law and Justice party.