Analysis
Politics
European Commission Report Highlights Ukraine’s Gains in Governance, Reform and Resilience
7 November 2024
6 December 2021
Orwellian games with Polish politics of memory and a postmodern twist
On 16 November 2021 the Polish National Broadcasting Council (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji) reprimanded the main state television network — TVP1 — for abusing one quote from Donald Tusk, Poland’s opposition leader.
In only two evening news programmes, on July 19 and 20, the government-controlled network repeated four times a short video of Tusk saying, in German, “für Deutschland” (for Germany). They also played twice a clip of Tusk speaking — on another occasion — “Danke für Alles” (thank you for all).
All of this was completely disconnected from any actual news. The videos are old and have been clipped. They were meant to prove that Tusk is a German lackey, portraying him as almost a traitor and an enemy of ‘true’ Polish national interests. In the symbolic universe of the Polish pro-government media, the fact alone that any Polish politician actually spoke some German serves as proof of his (or her) anti-Polish attitude. The context is not relevant.