The calls for Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak’s resignation came from the Third Way alliance and the New Left group on Tuesday, with the far-right Confederation grouping also criticising the country's authorities and expressing "solidarity with the soldiers," state news agency PAP reported.
Earlier in the day, the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces confirmed that its chief, Gen. Romuald Andrzejczak, and the army’s operational commander, Gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, have both resigned from their posts.
Szymon Hołownia, co-leader of the Third Way alliance, told reporters: “The government has undermined Poland’s security with its inept and incompetent decisions.”
He added that the resignations of the two senior generals less than a week before a parliamentary election represented “a response to the actions of the defence minister, to the attempts to politicise the army and to treat soldiers as mobile props to be used at political events and party meetings.”
Hołownia said that after such a “vote of no confidence” from Polish soldiers, Błaszczak “should resign with immediate effect,” the PAP news agency reported.
Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the Confederation grouping, said that Poland’s military command ”is paralysed at a time when war continues beyond our eastern border and there is a crisis on the Belarus frontier.”
At a media briefing in parliament, Bosak argued that Andrzejczak and Piotrowski had left their posts because "those in power prioritise propaganda over planned efforts to strengthen Poland’s defences.”
Bosak expressed “solidarity with the soldiers” on behalf of his party and criticised the defence minister, the government and President Andrzej Duda, the PAP news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the New Left’s Krzysztof Gawkowski urged Błaszczak “to resign today,” according to news outlets.
The opposition lawmaker warned that a situation in which top army generals were quitting "amid the conflict in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine" affected Poland's ability to defend NATO’s eastern flank.
Gawkowski argued that such developments were making Russian President Vladimir Putin "happy.” He added: “I demand that Minister Błaszczak resign today.”
Tuesday is day 594 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Poles will head to the ballot box to vote in parliamentary elections on Sunday. They will elect 460 MPs and 100 senators for a four-year term.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, 300polityka.pl
