On June 2, 2025, host Victoria Kirichenko discussed the results of Poland’s presidential runoff on the program “Beware, Provocateurs,” which aired on the Evening Political Channel and Radio Minsk, noting, “It doesn’t matter to us who won.” What matters, she said, is how independent Belarusian media covered the political process.
“Extremist outlets were actively pushing a series of paid pieces featuring Belarusians who were granted the right to vote. They gushed with enthusiasm about how much they liked the way the election was organized, how democratic it all seemed, and how confident they were that their votes would be counted and shape the country’s future. And bad news for those who weren’t given the right to vote.”
The program then aired a clip of Dariusz Matecki, a member of the opposition Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS).
“Dear colleagues, my fellow lawmaker is mistaken in calling for us to welcome Belarusian refugees. Poland is for Poles! Our resources are for our citizens, not for runaway traitors whom Minsk is using in a hybrid attack,”—that’s the translation from Polish into Russian that was placed over the video.
The WTF team found the original recording of the MP’s speech. Here’s how his words actually translate:
“Mr. Marshal, esteemed chamber, I’d like to submit a counter motion. You shouldn’t be making excuses—you should withdraw your candidate. Why? Since being released from internment, I have been reporting that hundreds of thousands of zlotys in illegal campaign funding were spent before the first round. This money came from organizations personally connected to the Civic Coalition.”
In other words, Matecki never mentioned Belarusians—he was talking about alleged illegal funding of the presidential campaign of Rafał Trzaskowski, the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) candidate from the ruling Civic Coalition.
WTF journalists have previously debunked fake news about Polish elections. For example, there was a claim that far-right candidates enjoy much broader support in Polish society than other political groups. According to Yekaterina Tikhomirova, host of the program “Katyusha’s Calculation” on News.by, this supposedly became clear after the presidential campaign.
