Czarnecki managed to fly from Brussels to Poland to appear on TV [SYLWETKA]

– Such a harmless clown – his long-time party colleagues say about Czarnecki – he was able to make the president laugh, but most importantly, he was probably the president’s ear in Brussels. He told him who was with whom, who was plotting against whom and who was meeting to drink wine with his enemies.

He found his place in PiS

Ryszard Czarnecki, following the president, finally found his place on earth and did not intend to be removed from it. Until this year. However, before settling permanently with President Kaczyński, he joined almost all the parties that appeared on the conservative-right side of the political scene. Of course, like most politicians who have emerged since the 1990s, he started out in the democratic opposition, being part of the Wrocław Independent Students’ Association, which also included Grzegorz Schetyna and Jacek Protasiewicz. After 1989, he tried his hand at journalism, including in Antoni Macierewicz’s “Głos”, and later became head of the editorial office for Catholic programmes of the newly established Polsat television Zygmunt Solorza.

Alongside his pseudo-journalistic activities, he was constantly involved in political activities. In fact, since the late 1980s, he has been associated with several parties. He started – like many young politicians – with Janusz Korwin-Mikke and his Real Politics Movement, that is, Korwin’s party before the UPR. He then jumped to the Christian-National Union, of which he was even a spokesman and one of the founders. As a politician of the ZChN, he entered the Sejm from the list of the Catholic Electoral Action and moved around the Ministry of Culture in the government of Hanna Suchocka. He became deputy minister. In the next government, this time under Jerzy Buzek, he became head of the Committee for European Integration. As he liked to say, he laid the foundations for our entry into the EU. In fact, he was probably convinced that it was he who brought us into the European Union.

— Czarnecki’s stories are a reality apart. He always knows everyone, is good with everyone, manages to take care of everything, laughs at his recent colleagues.

“The President’s Son”

But few people remember the circumstances under which Buzek left the government. The immediate cause was the accusations that, due to his incompetence, Poland had lost PHARE funds. It was about 35 million ECU (these were the units in which the Community settled its accounts at that time). This was the beginning of troubles from which Czarnecki was rescued only by Andrzej Lepper. He did not enter the Sejm, did not become president of Wrocław, he had nowhere to go. So he went to Lepper.

For years, President Jarosław Kaczyński has been sympathetic towards Richard (he was given this name at birth, but changed it so as not to poke the voters in the electoral rolls). On the one hand, he has been sympathetic enough to even mock his loyal MEP, but on the other, he has treated him a bit like a son who always needs his father’s help. At an event that Ryszard Czarnecki organised to mark the 30th anniversary of his political career, the president is reported to have said that he only knew one other man as hard-working – Przemysław Gosiewski, who died in the Smolensk disaster. “Today, Ryszard Czarnecki is one of the people I talk to most often. I also appreciate him for the fact that obstacles and failures do not knock him down, he always goes further,” the president is reported to have said.

Czarnecki, although he seemed to be the one who would rather make money from politics than play first fiddle in it, had unbridled political ambition. Just a decade ago, he tried to convince Jarosław Kaczyński that he would be a better presidential candidate than Andrzej Duda. And this is another trait of Czarnecki that has kept him close to the president for years: he does not take offense at those who are stronger. Once the president made the decision, Czarnecki accepted it as the best and wisest. Without any discussion, he joined the campaign and pushed Andrzej Duda forward.

Richard’s Scarves

Of course, not disinterestedly, he sought the support of the president when he decided to become the head… of the Polish Olympic Committee. It was only a year ago. During the PiS era, he was also vice-president of the Polish Volleyball Association.

– Well, you saw Ryszard’s scarves – the PiS politicians laugh, referring to Czarnecki’s office in Brussels, where he hung a collection of more than 100 scarves of sports, volleyball and racing teams that he collected from all over the world. Everyone also saw photos of Ryszard’s training sessions. Few people talk seriously about Czarnecki to this day.

For years, his colleagues envied his media contact. Czarnecki managed (I know from personal experience) to fly from Brussels for a 20-minute TV interview, only to fly back two hours later and sign the attendance list for a committee meeting in the European Parliament. Probably every political journalist in Poland received text messages saying: “I’m going to Warsaw, I’m available.” He was always and everywhere. He spoke on every subject.

Although Ryszard Czarnecki is considered someone who will make friends with anyone, especially when he sees immediate benefits or potential benefits for the future, his ego is very easy to offend. Ryszard Czarnecki simply felt like a VIP.

– I remember one such trip – says a politician whose path crossed with Czarnecki’s in one of the Arab countries – during which, for various reasons, I managed to get a better apartment than his.

– It turns out that the girl who worked at the reception was my former patient – a parliamentary doctor who has been sitting on Wiejska Street for years tells us – and she used her discounts to improve the standard of my room as a way of gratitude. I invited the Polish delegation to drink whiskey at my house.

Rysio also came. He was surprised to see the apartment and immediately went to make a fuss at the reception for being of a lower standard.

In recent years, however, Czarnecki’s position in the president’s ear has weakened significantly. It was not only that he was the only one reporting on Nowogrodzka Street what was happening in Brussels, but it was also becoming increasingly clear that the allegations against Czarnecki regarding the mileage were not made up and could have serious consequences. Czarnecki, despite having been as close as possible to the president for years, did not provide himself with full protection. The president will not defend him at all costs, because he simply knows that in the case of this long-serving MEP, many of the allegations could turn out to be true and there is no point in cutting off his hand. And that is why Czarnecki was suspended as a member of the PiS.