Should Kasprzyk Be Expelled from Civic Platform?

On his profile, Wojciech Kasprzyk posted a joke: “What does a Black man have that is white?” And the answer: “Listen.” The post attracted the attention of Gazeta Wyborcza journalists. The newspaper published an article titled “A racist joke on the Facebook profile of a city councillor from Civic Platform.”

Jacek Protasiewicz, an MEP and head of Civic Platform in Lower Silesia, told Wyborcza:

“Such words compromise a politician […]. They demonstrate the councillor’s intellectual deficiency and a fundamental misunderstanding of the values upheld by Civic Platform. I expect the party’s local authorities to punish Kasprzyk quickly.”

The board of the Civic Platform Municipal Circle in Bolesławiec called for Kasprzyk’s expulsion from the party. In the justification, Dariusz Kwaśniewski, the chairman of the Circle, wrote: “This racist text discredits [Wojciecha Kasprzyka] as a member of our party. […] His act seriously harms Civic Platform.”

Kasprzyka (pierwszy z prawej) nigdy nie dopuszczono do pierwszego szeregu, mimo tego, że dobrze służył partii (jest radnym miejskim, był znaczącym działaczem Stowarzyszenia Młodych Demokratów i kandydował z list PO do Parlamentu Europejskiego) • Photo author: ii

Wojciech Kasprzyk intends to sue Gazeta Wyborcza and MEP Jacek Protasiewicz. “A journalist from Wyborcza wrote that when she called me, I laughed and hung up. That is a lie,” says Kasprzyk. “We agreed that I would comment by SMS because I could not talk on the phone. I am also considering whether to sue Jacek Protasiewicz for portraying me as a deficient person,” he adds.

The councillor says that his party colleagues’ actions are a typical witch hunt and that young people are leaving the party. “I was the only Civic Platform member who had an opinion of my own, and the party used that to expel me,” says Kasprzyk. “They did not even mention that, as the only councillor from the Civic Platform group in Bolesławiec, I refused to sign the resolution concerning TV Trwam.”

Czy „wąsacze” z bolesławieckiej Platformy chcą pozbyć się młodych wilków? • Photo author: KG

When asked whether he suspected someone from the Circle in Bolesławiec of wanting to harm him, Kasprzyk replied that he was 90 percent certain who it was. “When I sue Gazeta Wyborcza, I will demand that they reveal who contacted them and gave them the information,” he declares. Asked whether he suspected Dariusz Kwaśniewski, he neither denied nor confirmed it. He answered, “I don’t know.”

Is the saying that a politician, like a fly, can be killed with a newspaper true? The answer is: apparently so, if the newspaper is wielded by party colleagues.

(information: Grażyna Hanaf)