Polish presidential candidates promote Russian narratives, expert says

This was stated by Polish international affairs expert Dariusz Materniak on the air of Espreso.

"Unfortunately, there are such people. They do what they do – it’s easy to see. In fact, as a state, as a democracy, we currently lack the courage to use mechanisms that exist to prevent such a situation as we have now. People like Grzegorz Braun or Maciej Maciak, who said he has a very positive opinion of Putin – unfortunately, they are presidential candidates," he said.

Materniak added that they are using state funds to run their election campaigns and spread Russian propaganda through the media.

"This is bad. This is no longer democracy when someone promotes Russian narratives or when these narratives are later used by so-called Russian media. We really need to seriously think about what to do with this in the near future. If this situation continues, it will be a very bad situation for us," the expert concluded.

• At the end of April, leader of the Movement for Prosperity and Peace party and presidential candidate Maciej Maciak stated that he admires Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
• On May 6, far-right Polish presidential candidate Grzegorz Braun disrupted the European Union flag at the Ministry of Industry building in Katowice and wiped his shoes on it. Later, a video appeared online showing the politician setting the European flag on fire.