Teamwork is key, Polish justice minister says amid dispute over legal changes

"Without a team you cannot expect to play a real game," Zbigniew Ziobro said when asked to comment on a media interview given by President Andrzej Duda in which the head of state suggested he was in a dispute with Ziobro over judicial reforms and that the dispute concerned “the future of the country, the future of my compatriots."

Duda suggested in the interview that he was being attacked by Ziobro and his men from the United Poland (SP) group, which is allied with the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Using a football metaphor, Ziobro said that Duda is “a very capable man who can achieve a lot … but he must remember that … even Robert Lewandowski without the support of the team cannot play a real game. This would end in a big flop and failure.”

Lewandowski is a Polish star football player who captains the national squad, which on Sunday booked their place at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, sparking a nationwide celebration.

Speaking in an interview for the Do Rzeczy weekly that was published on Monday, Duda suggested that after parliamentary elections in 2011 Ziobro “betrayed Law and Justice” and attempted to break up the party and its parliamentary caucus.

Ziobro said on state television on Monday that he still felt “very positive” about Duda “despite all these words."

In an apparent reference to Duda’s July vetoes of two government-backed judicial bills, Ziobro said that "everyone has the right to make a mistake."

He added that Duda “has many advantages and great opportunities before him” and asserted that he was "reaching out” his hand to the president in agreement and was ready to "support him."

Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling conservatives, has in a recent media interview dismissed the tensions between Duda and Ziobro as a "generational dispute" between two 40-somethings.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP