Elections 2023. During the debate, Morawiecki says about Eastern Poland: “exposed to the Russian soldier”. This is false

On October 9, representatives of six election committees faced each other in an election debate organized by state television. However, the debate did not take place at the TVP headquarters at ul. Woronicza in Warsaw, only in the ATM studio on Wal Miedzeszyński, away from the city center. The leader of Law and Justice, Jarosław Kaczyński, refused to participate – PiS was represented by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The head of PO Donald Tusk acted as the representative of the Civic Coalition, the New Left was represented by Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, the representative of the Third Way was the leader of Poland 2050 Szymon Hołownia, the Confederation was represented by its co-chairman Krzysztof Bosak, and the Non-Party Local Government Workers – member of the board of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Krzysztof Maj.

In the part of the debate devoted to security, Mateusz Morawiecki referred to one of the main narratives pushed by Law and Justice in recent weeks regarding state security. “According to the doctrine of the Civic Platform, Poland was to be divided by the Vistula River on the right side of the Vistula, Poland was to be undefendedi.e. the entire part of Poland, a huge part of Poland, was exposed to the Russian soldier,” said Morawiecki.

This statement is a repetition of PiS’s false thesis about Tusk’s “line of shame” referring to a secret military document – as we explained in Konkret24. Fragments of the above-mentioned document were presented in the PiS election spot on September 17. “Tusk’s government was ready to give up half of Poland in the event of war” – says the Minister of Defense in the spot national Mariusz Błaszczak. He argues that the document assumed that the independent defense of the country would last a maximum of two weeks, and on the seventh day the enemy could reach the Vistula. “Documents clearly show that Lublin, Rzeszów and Łomża could have been the Polish Bucza,” says Błaszczak.

The narrative was repeated by politicians of the ruling party. On October 1, at the PiS convention in Katowice, Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek talked about “the border defined by Donald Tusk”. “This is handing over almost half of the country and half of our citizens into the hands of the enemy,” she argued. “This was also Tusk’s line of betrayal, i.e. the Vistula line, to which Polish troops were to withdraw immediately. Leave half of Poland at the mercy of the Russians, so that there would be another Bucza, Irpień, Borodianka there,” echoed Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. President Jarosław Kaczyński also spoke about Tusk’s “line of shame”.

What is it about? Mariusz Błaszczak declassified the first page and several individual paragraphs of the document “Plan for the Use of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland WARTA – 00101”. They show that one of the considered country defense scenarios assumed independent defense of the country while waiting for the arrival of allied forces “but not longer than for a period of 10-14 days”. The plan was to delay the pace of the offensive operation and stop the enemy’s attack “as far as the Vistula and Wieprz rivers are concerned.” In the fifth stage of the operation, the effort was to focus on stopping the enemy and maintaining the bridgeheads on the right bank of the Vistula.

Let us emphasize: the remaining fragments of the document are unknown. In an analysis published on September 23 for OKO.press national security expert Dr. Michał Piekarski explained that according to available information, the document was created in 2011. He emphasized that the described variant of an independent defense operation is only one of the assumed variants. It concerns the response to a full-scale aggression of the enemy, and not other scenarios, e.g. aggression conducted only with the participation of aviation and missile weapons. And what is important: the plan for the use of armed forces is a document subordinate to the National Security Strategy of 2007 and other documents issued on its basis – the Defense Strategy and the Political-Strategic Defense Directive of the Republic of Poland. The latter document was issued on the basis of resolutions President Lech Kaczyński in 2009.

“Does knowing the whole thing [dokumentu] could such theses be made?” – the journalist of “Fakty” TVN, Arleta Zalewska, asked the former Minister of Defense Bogdan Klich about Błaszczak’s spot. “No, the minister lies like a dog and it is a lie which, as I said, is of a historical nature” – replied Klich .

“Even from this piece, this one paragraph, such a conclusion cannot be drawn, and the opposite conclusion can be drawn from the entire document” – this is already a comment Gen. Mieczysław Cieniuch, former Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army. “There was never any intention in any plans or exercise scenario to give up part of Poland without a fight,” commented the former commander of the land forces, General Waldemar Skrzypczak. He emphasized that no one has the right to disclose documents that are part of Poland’s defense plan coordinated with the plans of the North Atlantic Alliance. Because – although PiS politicians do not add – the disclosed document comes from the times when Poland was already in NATO.

READ MORE IN KONKRET24: Falsehood in PiS election messages