We have been dealing with the phenomenon of partisanship for at least the last eight years. And if now we hear about helplessness, about the paralysis of services at the expense of our security, we need to consider how to systematically reverse these phenomena, said Professor Agnieszka Kasińska-Metryka, director of the Institute of International Relations and Public Policies of the Jagiellonian University in Kielce, on TVN24. She emphasized that now “an efficiently functioning state should first investigate what contacts Tomasz Szmydt had.”
Prof. Ph.D. Agnieszka Kasińska-Metryka, political scientist, director of the Institute of International Relations and Public Policies of the Jagiellonian University in Kielce, was asked on Friday in “You get up and know” on TVN24 what tools we have to fight Russian agents in Poland and who watches over our security. She talked about it on the occasion of the case of Tomasz Szmydt, a former judge who fled to Belarus.
She said that “looking at the political scene, one may get the impression that we are currently dealing with a hot potato that parties are passing around, blaming each other.” – There are even questions about which of these parties is losing more image – she added.
– However, I believe that what we lose the most is as a society, because we lose trust in our security, and Poland loses its image. So one would like to ask whether these incidents are really an extraordinary situation, or whether the entire system was leaky and the situation that all the media are now reporting on and which we are talking about today occurred – said Kasińska-Metryka.
She emphasized that “regardless of the alternation of power, stability should be maintained.” – And this also applies to the operation of services. Unfortunately, however, we have, or have had at least over the last eight years, a phenomenon not so much of politicization but of partisanship. And if now we hear about helplessness, about the paralysis of the services at the expense of our security, we need to consider how to systematically reverse these phenomena so that regardless of who is in power, the services will keep watch, she said.
Szmydt's case “may be part of a larger puzzle”
Presenter Robert Kantereit noted that “if the judge was targeted by Russian and Belarusian agents, what can we say about retired police officers, retired service officers, and retired agents who, often with extensive knowledge from their time in service, retire for various reasons. These are also people who have to turn their backs because they are tasty morsels for the agents of various countries.
– I think the term greedy is the key here. External conditions have changed when it comes to obtaining such sources of information, said Kasińska-Metryka.
– I am not talking about the so-called bidders, i.e. people who, in various circumstances, primarily for financial reasons, are able to obtain various information for foreign intelligence, for foreign services, but also about what is happening inside the country, that the case of Tomasz Szmydt may be an element of a larger puzzle and now an efficiently functioning state, we hear such reassuring messages from those in power and let this actually happen, should first of all focus on examining what contacts Tomasz Szmydt had here – she added .
She pointed out that “if so far there has not been any reflection and consideration as to why a well-earning judge has debts and does not actually show any material assets in his asset declaration, this situation should be such an impulse.”
– And when it comes to finding people who can provide information, the media also reports about it, for example, people who are, for example, in the debtor register also immediately become a tasty target – she added.
Tomasz SzmydtWojciech Olkusnik/EastNews
The case of Tomasz Szmydt
On Monday, at a press conference in Minsk, Tomasz Szmydt announced that he was asking the Belarusian authorities for asylum. He also talked about “resignation from the position of judge“RP” with immediate effect. He argued that his resignation from the position was an expression of “a protest against the policy pursued by the Polish authorities towards Belarus and Russia.” So far, he has worked as a judge at the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw.
The National Prosecutor's Office initiated proceedings regarding espionage. However, the Disciplinary Court at the Supreme Administrative Court revoked Szmydt's immunity, allowed his detention and provisional arrest, and suspended him from his duties.
The spokesman for the Supreme Administrative Court announced on Thursday evening that the president of the Supreme Administrative Court accepted Tomasz Szmydt's declaration of resigning from the office of judge.
On Thursday, former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki admitted that Szmydt “he was probably an agentwho had been operating in the state structures for a long time.” Earlier, the coordinator of the special services, Tomasz Siemoniak, announced that Szmydt left for Belarus in June 2023, and the services “did not take any steps.”
Morawiecki, asked whether the services he then indirectly supervised knew about Szmydt's departure, replied: – Most likely they did not know, because if they were normal services operating effectively, they would have reacted. I only deduce and interpret it from what I know from the media.
Former judge Tomasz Szmydt is one of the heroes of the hate scandal during the PiS government, which concerns the slander of judges opposed to the reforms of the United Right in the judiciary.
Main photo source: Wojciech Olkusnik/EastNews