Poland’s Duda sued for remarks about film on asylum seekers

The Centre for Monitoring of Racism and Xenophobic Behaviour (OMZRiK) is suing Polish President Andrzej Duda, a former PiS member, for his comments about a 2023 film depicting the situation at the Polish-Belarusian border, where hundreds of migrants have been trying to enter Poland since mid-2021.

"Green Border, a 2023 film by one of Poland's most famous contemporary film directors and former president of the European Film Academy, Agnieszka Holland, was criticised on release by the then ruling PiS (ECR) party, which accused the director of slandering Polish border guards, even though the film tallied with what human rights groups were reporting from the border.  

“Many said it was impossible to succeed in bringing the head of state to justice. However, we did it, despite the fact that no one before us has ever done it,” OMZRiK wrote on social media.

The subject of the lawsuit is Duda's statement, made during an interview with public broadcaster TVP, in which he referred to the slogan "Only pigs go to the cinema", originally associated with opposition to Nazi propaganda films shown in Poland during the Second World War.

“I am not surprised that the border guard officers who saw the film used the slogan ‘only pigs sit in the cinema’,” Duda said at the time, adding that the film slandered Polish border guards.

OMZRiK announced that the District Court in Warsaw has set 24 October as the date for the first hearing of the trial. The hearing will be broadcast online, and the NGO has promised to share a link so anyone can join in.

According to the Polish Constitution, the president “may be held accountable before the Tribunal of State for an infringement of the Constitution or statute, or for commission of an offence.”

“Bringing an indictment against the president of the republic shall be done by resolution of the National Assembly passed by a majority of at least two-thirds of the statutory number of members of the National Assembly [a joint session of the two chambers of the Polish parliament, the Sejm and the Senate] on the motion of at least 140 members of the Assembly,” the constitution states.

When an indictment is brought against the president, he or she is suspended from his or her office.

The “Green Border” was an international co-production between companies in Poland, Czechia, France, and Belgium. It competed for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)