The Polish right refuses to accept loss of power and occupies state television

Amid a turbulent change of power, Poland’s main state television news channel abruptly disappeared from the air on Wednesday as the former ruling party sent lawmakers and other supporters to the public broadcaster’s headquarters to prevent new management from taking power.

Members of the ousted former government staged a sit-in at a building in southern Warsaw that houses the studios and offices of state television, including TVP Info, a news channel and website that served as a propaganda bulletin for the right-wing Law and Justice . Party during its eight years in power.

The protesters, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the combative Law and Justice chairman, tried to prevent the new centrist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk from asserting control, accusing it of staging a “coup” by loyalists from Law and Justice. which lost the general election in October.

While Mr Kaczynski and his supporters vowed to “defend democracy” and block a change of management ordered by Mr Tusk’s culture minister, technicians supporting the new government took TVP Info off the air and website, which included calls for opposition to an “illegal attack on public television” by Mr. Tusk.

The uproar highlighted the turbulence facing the new government as it struggles to assert its authority over a wide range of state organs, including the courts, which are packed with die-hard Law and Justice supporters.

The battle for public television could be a foretaste of a long period of disruptive trench warfare between a new administration trying to break Law and Justice’s hold on those institutions, and the remnants of the party trying to thwart it. When Law and Justice first came to power in 2016, it imposed its own management on state television within days and met no resistance.

The evening news program on TVP was canceled on Wednesday and replaced with a promotional video for an upcoming World War II series, and a statement from Marek Czyz, a newly appointed news anchor, who once promised “clean water” instead of “propaganda soup.” news bulletins resumed. TV Republika, a small private channel loyal to Law and Justice, broadcast images of TVP holdouts holed up in the public broadcaster’s news studio as they tried to rally support – evidence that the new management has not yet gained full control received about the transmitter.

“You can count on our determination on this matter,” he said.

Poland’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, whose president is a longtime friend and supporter of Mr. Kaczynski, issued an order last week at the request of Law and Justice lawmakers demanding that the new government make no changes in the management of public broadcasters.

The tribunal, like many lower courts, public media and a national prosecutor’s office established under the old government, became heavily politicized during Law and Justice’s tenure, and was purged of people independent of the party. But in October the party lost its majority in parliament to a coalition of opposition parties aligned with Tusk, a former prime minister.

Ignoring the Constitutional Court’s order not to make any changes, parliament on Tuesday adopted a resolution mandating a management overhaul of Poland’s Public Broadcaster, a network of regional and national radio and television channels.

The resolution accused the network of being “exclusively party media outlets carrying out propaganda work” and said there was “an urgent need” to restore the independence of the state-funded media.

Mr Tusk’s Minister of Culture, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, announced on Wednesday that he had dismissed the heads and supervisory boards of TVP, the television arm of the public broadcaster, Polish Radio and the national news agency PAP. TVP Info is a 24-hour news channel under the umbrella of TVP.

Mr Kaczynski, Poland’s de facto leader until his party’s election defeat, responded with the sit-in and a noisy protest outside the broadcaster’s headquarters by Law and Justice supporters, with chants of “Free Media” and ‘Down with communism’.

“We will not hand over Poland to the communists,” shouted one protester, echoing Law and Justice’s baseless claim that the new government wants to restore the repressive system that existed during the Cold War.

In the October elections, Law and Justice won more seats in parliament than any other party, but far fewer than the combined opposition parties that formed a majority coalition.

Mr Kaczynski has claimed that this means his party has won, has repeatedly pledged to oppose a change of power, and has described Mr Tusk, a former senior European Union official in Brussels, as a “German agent” who threatened Poland’s continued existence as sovereign. and independent state.

“We are dealing with a coup. Society must speak!” said Jacek Sasin, a Law and Justice MP who took part in Mr Kaczynski’s sit-in.

Mariusz Kaminiski, who served as Minister of the Interior and coordinator of Poland’s secret service until October’s elections, also joined the protest, comparing the new government’s moves to take control with the efforts of the former communist regime of the country to undermine Solidarity by declaring martial law on December. 13, 1981.

However, Law and Justice claims that they are repeating Solidarity’s heroic resistance to communism four decades ago have been undermined by some of its own former supporters, including Marcin Wolski, a prominent television personality and former media manager who after the election accused TVP of creating ‘worse propaganda’ than the communists.

Several of Law and Justice’s most vicious attack dogs have quietly disappeared, including Hanuta Holecka, who presented the main evening news until she resigned last week after years of pouring bile on Mr Tusk and his allies. Others, however, have vowed to keep their jobs.

Those opposing the change received encouragement on Wednesday from the National Media Council, an oversight body created by Law and Justice when it first came to power and is still controlled by its appointees. In a statement, the council denounced the management overhaul ordered by the new culture minister as “illegal” and warned that “people participating in the unlawful attack on public media that is taking place before our eyes should expect serious consequences under the provisions of the Criminal Code.”

Anatol Magdziarz reporting contributed.