MP Joanna Lichocka is demanding an apology from the organisers of a public fundraiser that resulted in several hundred billboards showing her vulgar gesture being put up across the country. “The MP has ended her political and media quarantine and decided to remind Poles of her friendly greeting,” respond the organisers of the fundraiser.
Recall: in mid-February, the Law and Justice party succeeded in rejecting the Senate’s amendments during a vote in the Sejm, transferring almost PLN 2 billion to the public media. The Senate, however, wanted the money to be used for oncology treatment.
Shortly after the vote, which was victorious for the Law and Justice party, MP Joanna Lichocka showed her middle finger. At first, she explained that she was nervous and vigorously moved her finger under her eye, which was caught by photojournalists. The vulgar gesture of Lichocka became quite notorious.
It was then that Marcin Mycielski of the Open Dialogue Foundation came up with the idea to put Lichocka’s famous photo on billboards. A fundraising campaign for this purpose was launched on the Internet.
“Together with Bartosz Kramek, we decided to take advantage of MP Lichocka’s gesture and show the public what the government plans to do with their taxes,” Mycielski said. The fundraiser exceeded the organisers’ wildest expectations. More than 5,000 donations were received, which resulted in almost 400 media billboards across the country, including in Kielce. “More than 170 pictured MP Lichocka’s salutation,” Mycielski said today.
Joanna Lichocka’s attorney: it is an imputation of bad intentions and a mocking presentation
MP Lichocka, however, believes that her personal rights have been violated. In an extensive demand letter drafted by the MP’s attorney, she demands that the organisers of the fundraiser, Mycielski and Kramek, remove the fundraiser, pay PLN 40,000 to the Rak’n’Roll – Win Life Foundation and apologise.
They are to apologise for “the dissemination of untruthful content suggesting that her [Lichocka’s -ed.] will is to deprive cancer patients of funding for their treatment”.
The authors of the fundraiser are also to express apologies “for ascribing bad intentions to Joanna Lichocka and portraying her image in a mocking manner as the ‘face’ of the media dispute over public media funding.”
The PiS MP’s attorney claims that during the debate on the funding of state media “the impression was ostentatiously created that the Sejm, having rejected the Senate amendments, ‘instead of treating the sick, allocated money for propaganda and television campaign’, which, given the adoption of the National Cancer Strategy for 2020–2030 (…) with an allocation of about PLN 5 billion for this purpose, is nothing but a populist narrative that has no common denominator with reality”.
Interestingly, the request to publish an apology this time does not clarify what the famous gesture represented. Instead, the organisers of the fundraiser were accused of using “the situation of a seriously ill person to achieve political ends” when they raised funds “to pay for the unpaid RTV subscription of Ms Isabella, a cancer patient”.
“Joanna Lichocka has received dozens of death threats”
The demand letter included the following: “Joanna Lichocka’s image has been used to drive a public dispute by means of ‘tricks’ involving the juxtaposition of unfavourable photographs with untrue, populist slogans and their subsequent placement on billboard that have appeared across Poland – and which were funded by none other than misled citizens.”
As a result, the Law and Justice MP allegedly received “dozens of messages from people threatening her with death and demanding that she resign her parliamentary seat”.
Bartosz Kramek: It is the patients in oncology wards who deserve an apology
The organisers of the fundraiser do not intend to apologise to Ms Lichocka. “It seems that she has ended her political and media quarantine and has decided to remind Poles of her friendly salutation. We are happy to help her do so. We have already stated our readiness to meet in court,” says Bartosz Kramek.
In his opinion, “It is the opposition, the patients of the oncology wards and the whole society who deserve an apology from her.”
The organisers of the fundraiser point out that the MP was pictured performing her official duties.
“It would also be difficult not to regard her as a representative of her own party, which made the decision to support TVP propaganda to the tune of billions, at the expense of the health service, despite the huge public controversy. Joanna Lichocka was the rapporteur and therefore the face of this project,” adds Kramek. In his opinion, the return of Lichocka’s case to public debate is a good opportunity to revive the fundraiser and support various groups in need.
“We are very curious to see how Joanna Lichocka will explain her behaviour when the case goes to court. Will it be ‘brushing the hair off her cheek’, rubbing a numb spot, or a gesture of peace to her colleagues on the parliamentary benches?” Marcin Mycielski adds.
Source: wyborcza.pl
