Press conference with the participation of Deputy Marshal Krzysztof Bosak, Mrs. Julita Olszewska (farmer from Podlasie, cattle breeder) and Zbigniew Kasperczuk.
Krzysztof Bosak:
– (…) Farmers demand the extension of the embargo on agri-food products from Ukraine to include sugar, poultry meat, fresh eggs, apple concentrate, raspberries and honey. We also have unfavorable European Union regulations, including: forcing farmers to fallow their land. Farmers have come out and protested against all this. The largest agricultural protests since time immemorial. In over 200 places in the country. In Poznań 2 thousand tractors blocked the city. And it turns out that the government doesn’t care!
10 days ago, Mrs. Julita published a video calling on farmers to protest. Calling people from cities, people from the transport industry to support farmers. And a few hours after the publication of the video, in which she also criticized Deputy Minister Kołodziejczak, two unknown men came to Mrs. Julita, to her farm where she lives with her family, suggesting that she should remove the video from the Internet. And suggesting that she should do it.
Ms. Julita deleted the film under pressure from these men. However, she took part in farmers’ protests. She posted this video again on the day of the farmers’ protests. We congratulate Mrs. Julita for her courage and for being part of this great wave of social agitation against the destruction of Polish agriculture.
As a Confederation, as a National Movement, we sympathize with the protests of Polish farmers. We are proud of the fact that there is such mobilization. We believe we have to fight for our rights. This is a matter of Polish food security, Polish raison d’état. This is a matter of the well-being of hundreds of thousands of Polish families who earn their living from agriculture, processing, and support the entire agricultural industry. We cannot allow such an important and constitutionally protected economic sector in Poland to be liquidated in the name of some European policy.
Julita Olszewska:
– I would like to say for myself that I could not imagine that in the 21st century, posting my thoughts on the Internet – I have an account on TiK Tok and I have been active there for some time – would cause such events, such a sequence of further events, that someone is not suggesting, but ordering me to delete it and never again speak ill of a man who plays a role in the country, who holds a position.
Words of criticism, if they were too strong – although I don’t think so – should be accepted on the chin. Because if you are someone important, these words of criticism will definitely come.
I was so shocked that someone would dare to come to my own backyard and order me to do something. That I did something wrong, that I don’t know myself, that I have no right to talk about someone.
Mr. Kołodziejczak knows the whole story. We talked twice on the phone. If he now says that the case is closed, then it’s very good of him that it is closed. Not yet on my end.
Thank you very much for inviting me to the Ministry of Agriculture. But I would invite the Minister of Agriculture to my place because I would like to talk about what is happening on the eastern border. About how goods from Ukraine enter us and are not examined. Nobody takes any tests. And if PiS started it and now Mr. Kołodziejczak is there to change it, why doesn’t he change it? (…)
– Minister of Agriculture, I think that the most important talks are about our problems. About where we are heading, where Polish agriculture is heading, and not worrying about deputy ministers and my affairs. Because it is in the second and third plan.
Krzysztof Bosak:
– (…) This situation requires explanation. We expect the state services to determine who disturbed Mrs. Julita based on the billings. It cannot be that someone who takes part in protests and criticizes the government is visited by men who apparently after watching the video on Tik Tok, they knew where Mrs. Julita lived. They arrived at her house 3 hours later. However, it must be emphasized that Mrs. Julita does not know these men. These are not men she would have worked with in the agricultural industry or known from protests.
These men somehow knew where Mrs. Julita lived, so the question is whether someone is spying on farmers and monitoring criticism of the government? We don’t want such situations. This looks like some kind of dictatorship. (…)