Polish ambassador to Sweden Wiesław Tarka has slammed Swedish left-wing paper Dagens Nyheter and its editor in chief Peter Wolodarski, claiming the paper presented “one-sided and very often untrue descriptions of the situation in Poland”.
In his letter to Dagens Nyheter, chief Ambassador Tarka spoke about two articles which he felt were misrepresenting the situation in Poland. The first article involved the Polish Independence March which took place last month, attracting 60,000 plus attendees and being labelled “far-right” by the international media.
“It is important to mention that the celebration of this day was forbidden during Communist rule from 1945 until 1989. I remember as a student the illegal gatherings at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw,” Tarka wrote.
While conceding that a small minority ethno-nationalists took part in the event, Tarka said: “They were decidedly condemned by the President of the Republic Andrzej Duda, I quote: ‘There is no place in Poland for xenophobia, pathological nationalism, and antisemitism’.”
Dagens Nyheter is not alone in trying to equate all the participants of the rallies to far-right extremists. Other media, like the BBC, have called Poland an “illiberal” country and accused the government of being anti-democratic.
Speaking to Breitbart London last month, Senator Anna Maria Anders, minister for International Dialogue, slammed the BBC, saying: “The BBC, funded by British taxpayers, should stick to the facts and not editorialise to serve an increasingly rejected political agenda.”
Tarka also took exception to an article that claimed the Polish ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) wanted women to stay at home rather than have a career through the Rodzina 500 plus child benefit programme.
“Even if experts are divided in opinion, if the programme is well thought of or not, there is a wide consensus in Poland that Polish families, not only the Polish women, deserve child benefits,” he said, and added that Polish women were among the most successful in Europe. He noted that Poland currently has its third female prime minister, and that women make up almost half of those in high ranking positions in society.
Despite the constant criticism from the international media, the ruling PiS party have enjoyed record support in recent polls.
Poland has also rejected the idea of mass migration and of migrant redistribution putting out a video last month encouraging Poles to have more children to address any population shortfall instead of bringing in migrants to replace them.
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