“Only pigs sit.” The President of Poland, Duda, will appear in court because of his unfortunate remarks about the Poles

As noted in the material, the public organization Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior reported that it filed a lawsuit against Duda due to his statements on the air of the News Guest program on TVP Info on September 20, 2023.

The President of Poland said that he was not surprised by the use of the expression by officers of the Border Service “only pigs are sitting in the cinema” regarding people who watched Agnieszka Holland’s film Green Border, TVN24 writes.

“I am saddened by the fact that such a film is being made, which – as I have heard, because I have not seen the film – strongly denigrates Polish officers. I’ve even read the opinion that they look almost sadistic… The fact that Ms. Holland shows Polish officers doing a job for Polish society, for the safety of us all, shows them that way, I’m not surprised that the Border Patrol officers who saw film, used a slogan familiar to us from the time of the Nazi occupation, when Nazi propaganda films were shown in our cinemas: “Only pigs sit in the cinema,” Duda noted.

The president later clarified that the statement was not his statement, but a quote.

“I clearly and distinctly stated what I was quoting. I said that I was quoting the statement of the representatives of the Border Service, who watched the film and made statements about it in the media,” Duda noted.

TVN24 writes that the case will still be heard. The Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior reported that the first hearing of the case will take place on October 24, 2025 at the District Court in Warsaw.

The Polish publication Fakt asked the lawyer what punishment the Polish president could face.

According to him, the decision in such a case may provide for an apology or compensation or damages if the court establishes a violation of personal rights recorded in the Civil Code.

The lawyer also noted that the court can oblige the president to publish an apology in the mass media.

“The case is extremely interesting and it is difficult to predict how the court will behave,” he added.

The premiere of the film Green Border took place on September 5, 2023 at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. There he was awarded the Special Jury Prize. The film tells about the migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, which began in the summer of 2021. At that time, migrants from Asian and African countries tried to reach the European Union through the border between Poland and Belarus.