It began with a post by Dariusz Kwaśniewski on Facebook. Kwaśniewski wrote about the County’s efforts to introduce changes beneficial to us into the draft Lower Silesian Voivodeship Development Strategy (concerning, among other things, the allocation of EU funds to individual regions in the voivodeship).

Kwaśniewski admitted that the Strategy does not take into account, among other things, important county road investments, and that the proposed area called “Bory Dolnośląskie” was not created in it. Maciej Małkowski, a former deputy mayor and current county councillor, responded critically on his blog (Bobrzanie) to the County’s efforts to obtain EU funds. And here the boring subject ends, while a tasty exchange of barbs begins, carried out by a former municipal official and a current county official.

In response to the criticism, Kwaśniewski called the councillor an “expert on the number of pupils in municipal school classes and the number of four-legged friends”. He then reminded Małkowski that when he was deputy mayor, he “decided (or perhaps co-decided?)” that the municipality would not promote Bory Dolnośląskie.

Małkowski did not remain indebted to him and, at the beginning of his comment, called Kwaśniewski a “local full-time member of the board, pushed from the ranks to the forefront” and an “expert in (…) tasks that could successfully be performed by a mid-level official”. He also reminded him of his high salary, writing that he receives “remuneration similar to that of a mayor or deputy county head.”

He did not stop there. He added that Bolesławiec members of the Civic Platform are not taken very seriously by their higher-ranking colleagues, which, for Małkowski, was demonstrated, among other things, by Kwaśniewski’s distant position on the candidate lists in the parliamentary elections.

The county councillor also had a lot to say about Dariusz Kwaśniewski’s working style. He accused him of focusing solely on himself, being unable to support and praise employees, and visiting partners only during elections, “asking for support with a grateful smile”. The former deputy mayor advised Kwaśniewski to log out of Facebook, where he often posts photos of himself with cats while sitting on the sofa, and start meeting partners in person.

Clearly deeply offended, Kwaśniewski responded:

“And what, Maciej, as the second deputy mayor, did you create for the local community over four years while receiving a salary similar to mine?!? You have no such achievements. Because that is more difficult than handing out flowers—on behalf of the mayor—at numerous events… You were good at that. (…) The substantive level of your arguments is pathetic. But people buy it—‘he stood up for our children,’ they think. And yet you should have worked on the amount of the subsidy, (…), rather than adding millions every year to education costs from the pockets of Bolesławiec residents. You picked on the PLN 200,000 that we have to add to ‘Orka’. Shall I calculate how much residents added to schools during your term?!? I think they would stop loving you…”

In the final act of this tragicomedy, Piotr Roman was called onto the stage. Kwaśniewski began: “For several decades now, I have had the pleasure of co-creating one of the best county education systems in Poland. Your employer fired you after one term. And he even told me… why. You will blame politics and coalitions. But that is not how it happened… Do you want to know?”

Małkowski reacted in a similar manner: “The alleged revelations by the mayor about me, which, as you say, he revealed to you… Hmmm, forgive me, Darek, but if I were to believe his little stories about you, I would smile at you pityingly, significantly shaking my head.”

Then the former deputy mayor ended the battle with a pompous maxim: “Remember, Dariusz—skills will take you to the top. However, it takes character to remain there.” Deputy Mayor Maciej did not survive the exchange. We will leave the comments to our Readers…

Grażyna Hanaf