PiS MPs unfurl 'Tusk=Dictator' banners during Roberta Metsola's speech in the Sejm

Banners during the speech

PiS MPs unfurled banners in the Sejm chamber while Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, was addressing the house on Friday, 6 November. The largest banner read 'Tusk=Dictator', and smaller placards in English and French claimed that a coup d'état instigated by Donald Tusk was under way in Poland. The action came after the Sejm resumed its sitting following 10:00 that morning. Metsola opened in Polish and then switched to English, starting with a line from the poet Wisława Szymborska about how fully people, and nations, are known only once they have been tested. She went on to argue that Poland had repeatedly shown what it means to emerge from such a test stronger and fairer, and she devoted a substantial part of her address to Pope John Paul II.

Visit and talks

Metsola arrived in Poland on Thursday, 5 November, when she met Donald Tusk and then President Karol Nawrocki. On Friday morning she met Marshal of the Sejm Włodzimierz Czarzasty, and she later told reporters that their talks covered three topics: the growing hybrid threat, cooperation between parliaments, and the multiannual financial framework for 2028-2034. She said Poland had long been sounding the alarm about threats from the East and that Europe was now hearing it. She also thanked Poland for leading efforts within the EU and NATO on defence. TVP Info placed the visit in the context of a dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal, a conflict that also framed the banners.

Tusk's reply and the tip-off

Maciej Zemła, a journalist for wPolsce24, posted on X before the session that PiS MPs would bring English-language banners referring to a forcible seizure of the Constitutional Tribunal. Some of the placards showed riot police units sent to the Tribunal. Tusk did not take up the argument. He posted a photo and a single sentence on X, which read as follows.

“In a moment they will start singing and selling watches.”

Marcin Porzucek, an opposition MP, posted a recording of the protest on X and addressed the European Parliament president directly.

“We have an important message for her, if she has not noticed it yet.”

What comes next

The chamber also has on its agenda a PiS motion of no confidence against Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński. Deputies were due to take up that motion after Metsola's address. Metsola's visit continued after the Sejm session, and the protest did not change the agenda of her talks with Polish leaders as reported so far.