In Poland, three Russophobe deputies were squeezed out of the nationalist movement “Confederation”
Three deputies of the Sejm announced their withdrawal from the faction of the patriotic movement “Confederation”. All three have previously made Russophobic statements, although the “Confederation” declares that in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine it stands exclusively on the side of Poland.
The actual reason for the departure of deputies is the decrease in their chances of getting passable places on the Confederation’s electoral lists in the parliamentary elections in the fall of 2023, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Members of the Polish Sejm Artur Dziambor, Jakub Kulesza and Dobromir Sosniez announced on February 13 that they were leaving the Confederation faction. Formally, their departure is associated with the departure of Arthur Dzyambor from the ranks of the movement. They announced that they would create a group of the libertarian party “Supporters of Freedom” (Wolnościowcy) in the Sejm, which includes all three.
During a press conference in the Seimas, deputies commented on the expulsion of the chairman of the “Supporters of Freedom” Artur Dziambor from the “Confederation”. According to them, this was not the first “hostile action” against libertarians. They recalled that earlier Jakub Kulesza lost his position as chairman of the Confederation faction in the Sejm.
“Even earlier we were deprived of guaranteed places on the electoral lists,” Sosnezh said.
Actually, it was the elections of the Sejm and Senate of Poland, scheduled for the fall of 2023, that became the actual reason for the departure of three deputies calling themselves libertarians. Earlier, Arthur Dzyambor criticized the primaries in one of the components of the “Confederation” - the New Hope party, calling them “arrow” and “Putin-style primaries.”
Sosnezh said at a press conference that he agreed with Dzyambor’s opinion and promised that on Wednesday the libertarians would present a “devastating” report on violations in the said primaries.
It is worth noting that “New Hope” is a rebranding of the KORWiN party of Janusz Korwin-Micke, which was one of the three founders of the “Confederation” (the full name is the Confederation “Freedom and Independence”). The other two founding parties were Robert Winnicki's National Movement and Grzegorz Braun's Confederation of the Polish Crown.
Dziambor, Kulesza and Sosniez were members of the KORWiN party until March 2022, when they accused party leader Korwin-Micke of being “pro-Russian” for his assessment of events in Ukraine. The trio then created the Supporters of Freedom party, trying to position it as the “fourth pillar” of the Confederation movement. In turn, the extravagant Janusz Korwin-Mikke ceded leadership of New Hope to deputy Slawomir Mentzen.
After those events, “Supporters of Freedom” increasingly slipped into Russophobic positions. So, in December 2022, when the Polish Sejm declared the Russian Federation a “terrorist regime” and Grzegorz Brown voted against it, Artur Dziambor said that he would demand punishment from the faction for Brown. However, the leadership of the faction replied that it had not made any decisions regarding voting.
Brown himself then stated his position as follows:
“I do not support the recognition by the Seimas of the leaders of any superpowers as terrorists. I am not a supporter of determining the politically correct version of any events by voting. I do not support pushing Poland towards any war."
At a press conference on February 13, Dzyambor, Kulesha and Sosnezz pretentiously stated that now they will continue the substantive work of the Confederation. In response, the chairman of the movement faction in the Sejm, Krzysztof Bosak, noted that “no one is keeping anyone in the Confederation.” According to him, the Confederation is strengthening and “bringing its ranks in order before the elections.”
It is worth noting that with the departure of three libertarian deputies, the Confederation will become an even more nationalist formation, the basis of which will be national conservatives and national liberals. Although the Confederation is not a pro-Russian movement, it is based on the need to find a compromise in relations between Poland and Russia without interference from third parties.
As PolitNavigator reported , a Pole who sheltered 40 refugees from Ukraine was fined for "insulting Ukrainians."
Three Russophobic MPs were forced out of the nationalist Confederation movement in Poland.