Wife of border guard criticises opposition in new Polish ruling party campaign ad

The wife of an officer in Poland’s border guard has criticised the opposition in a new campaign advert broadcast today by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

“I’m Diana, the mother of three-year-old Nikodem and also the wife of Grzegorz, an officer of the border guard,” begins the advert. “Three years ago, Putin’s hybrid attack on the Polish border began,” she continued, referring to a migration crisis engineered by Belarus on its border with Poland.

“We never expected that there would be people in Poland who would start to demolish our border from the inside,” added Diana. The advert then shows clips of figures associated with the opposition, including Donald Tusk, criticising the government’s tough response to the border crisis.

🇵🇱 Te wybory są o tym, czy Polska granica będzie chroniona. Czy Polska będzie bezpieczna.
15 października zagłosuj na Bezpieczną Przyszłość Polaków! #BezpiecznaPolska pic.twitter.com/VCuJgJwZ1A

— Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (@pisorgpl) October 11, 2023

Among them is Władysław Frasyniuk – a prominent critic of the government though not formally part of the political opposition – who in 2021 called border guards a “pack of dogs” and “garbage”. Earlier this year, he was convicted in court of using “unlawful, contemptuous, harmful” language for those words.

“Are you aware that border guards also have their own families?” continued Diana in the advert. “It is very painful that you aim your films and international propaganda at us, destroying our lives.”

The latter is a reference to a new film, Green Border, by renowned director Agnieszka Holland that depicts the mistreatment of refugees at Poland’s border with Belarus. The movie has received critical acclaim but also condemnation from the Polish government, with ministers likening it to communist and Nazi propaganda.

A court has banned the justice minister from likening director Agnieszka Holland and her new film Green Border to Nazi propaganda while she sues him for making such a comparison.

He has condemned the decision as an „assault on free speech” https://t.co/xKHDIrZofh

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 27, 2023

“Children of officers must say in school that their parents do not kill pregnant women and that they do not bury anyone in the forest,” said Diana, referring to accusations made against the border guard. “This is not only a lie; it is cruelty.”

“On 15 October [election day] you will decide whether the borders of our country will be defended and whether Poland will be safe,” she concludes.

The national-conservative PiS has made national security and migration central issues of its campaign, arguing that it is the only party that will ensure Poland’s borders remain secure.

The issue of migration, which helped PiS come to power in 2015, has become a double-edged sword for the ruling party due to the cash-for-visas scandal.

But it still has the potential to mobilise PiS voters in a tight election race, writes @AleksSzczerbiak https://t.co/I5ZOHl2Sai

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 11, 2023

However, it has faced accusations of hypocrisy from opposition parties, who point to recent revelations of corruption in the visa system that allowed migrants to make payments that accelerated the processing of applications.

The opposition have also criticised PiS for using state institutions to support its re-election campaign. Yesterday, it emerged that two of the country’s most senior generals had resigned, with unofficial reports suggesting they were frustrated with the politicisation of the armed forces by the ruling party.

“The party that organised the selling of Polish visas at the foreign ministry, that facilitated the arrival in Poland of a record (on a European scale) number of immigrants, and that forced military generals to leave due to its incompetence has released a new advert,” tweeted Marta Habior, a film producer and activist.

Two of Poland’s top generals – the chief of the general staff and operational commander – have resigned amid reports of conflict with the government.

It comes days ahead of elections for which the ruling party has campaigned strongly on national security https://t.co/qQhRzvHsOF

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 10, 2023

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Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.