"I will not draw any dramatic consequences over a slip of the tongue," Tusk said at a press conference on Tuesday, referring to Nowacka's misstatement.
"If politicians had to give up their positions because of a slip of the tongue, I don't know if anyone would ever be willing to take on any roles," Tusk added. He also urged to "distinguish between a stupid mistake and the very dangerous aspects of real politics."
As reported earlier on Radio Poland's website, on Monday, during the international conference "We Are the Memory. Teaching History is Learning to Talk," held in Kraków on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, Barbara Nowacka said:
"In the area occupied by the Germans, Polish Nazis built camps, which were labor camps and then became camps of mass extermination." The ministry later explained that the minister "clearly misspoke."
According to Donald Tusk, "In politics, what matters are intentions, actions, and deeds, not slips of the tongue."
The Prime Minister reminded that concentration camps in Poland were built and run by German Nazis, stressing that all Poles know this. He also pointed to the dangers posed by politicians and parties collaborating with groups in Germany that question Polish borders and have nostalgia for the Nazi past.
The politician called on the media to effectively distinguish dangerous ideologies from minor mistakes.
On Tuesday morning, the Education Minister wrote on X that "it is obvious that the camps were built by the Germans, and there were no Polish Nazis. And this is historical truth. I also spoke about this many times during my speech at the conference in Kraków. I apologize for the obvious slip of the tongue."
The opposition party, PiS, believes that Minister Nowacka should resign after this statement.
Read more about this subject:
Source: IAR/PAP/KPRM/X/@barbaraanowacka
(m p)