Tusk says government is lying about security
Donald Tusk, the main opposition leader, has accused the government of lying about national security.
Tusk was referring to a number of resignations in the Polish Army including two by top military commanders.
On Tuesday it was confirmed that Gen. Rajmund Andrzejczak, the chief of the General Staff, and Gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, the operational commander, had tendered their resignations.
One day later, the Wirtualna Polska news portal reported that Andrzejczak and Piotrowski were not the only ones who resigned from their service in the Polish Army.
"Eleven professional soldiers at the General Command of the Armed Forces did this between October 1 and 10. We have confirmation," the portal wrote.
The governing Law and Justice party (PiS) has made security and keeping Poland safe a priority in its campaign for October 15's general election, so the high-profile resignations come as unwelcome news.
Speaking at a meeting in the northern town of Elk, Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and leader of the centrist Civic Platform (PO) party, said that on Tuesday claims he had made about mass resignations in the Polish Army had been quickly dismissed by the government.
"And how did the PiS authorities and (Prime minister Mateusz - PAP) Morawiecki and some spokesman and officials responsible for information about the army react to this? That 'it's not true, fake news, Tusk is lying'", he said.
"This morning, all of Poland learned that I was telling the truth... and this has already been confirmed by official sources in the Polish Army," Tusk continued.
He added that PiS "had the nerve" to use the election slogan 'A safe future for Poles,' and at the same time they started making decisions... which resulted in events that brought a sense of fear, crime and chaos to all Polish homes."
"Their real political crime is that they lie to the entire nation about security."
The Operational Command of the Polish Forces said on Wednesday that the General Command had seen a number of resignations.
"If a military officer dealing with administrative matters submits a request to leave in the first week of October, this cannot be linked to the resignation of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army submitted a few days later," it said.
It added, however, that between October 1-10 11 "professional soldiers of the General Command" had resigned.
The statement made no reference to the rank of the officers. (PAP)
mr/md/jch
