Szefernaker: Just as we were gradually introducing restrictions, we will gradually move on to this "new normality"

Just as we were gradually introducing restrictions, we will probably gradually move on to this „new normality”, which the Prime Minister is talking about

— says Paweł Szefernaker, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, Law and Justice MP, in an interview with Marcin Fijołek.

Marcin Fijołek: Videoconferencing, crisis bars, and a number of meetings - I think the time when the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration operated from 8 to 16 is over.

Paweł Szefernaker: I have been working in the Ministry of Interior and Administration for over two years and I have never finished work at 4 p.m. This is the nature of this department. But in fact, for a few weeks now the ministry has been functioning permanently 24 hours a day all week long. From the very morning till late at night various staff meetings and video conferences are held. We stopped looking at watches and calendars.

The state has stopped working. It is hard to put up with it, and yet the economic consequences are still ahead of us. Were all these restrictions necessary?

We are in a state of war with the disease the whole world is struggling with today. The government has to react according to the recommendations of health care experts, and also by learning from the mistakes of other countries where this epidemic is spreading in a large, uncontrolled way. All these restrictions were taken precisely in order to react in advance and to minimise this epidemic in our country.

How does the state act in such an emergency mode?

At the local level, the crisis management staffs are in voivodeship offices. From the position of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, which coordinates the work of voivodes, we hold several conferences a day, during which the ministers of health, the chief sanitary inspector, as well as other heads of ministries provide information and decisions so that they are implemented throughout the country in a uniform manner. It is the voivodes who are responsible for all that is most important, depending on the voivodeship.

And what is most important?

This is a whole range of tasks - ranging from transforming selected hospitals into places for people with coronavirus exclusively, to the organisation of intensive care units and control of infectious wards, through hard work on closing borders. Sometimes it is also about making sure that those queuing at the border get sandwiches.

The situation is dynamic and changing, but can we tell what is the most important challenge, the most important problem? The hospital equipment?

Problems arise at every stage. However, thanks to the fact that we are in constant contact, when a difficult case arises, the voivodes know how to act on the basis of other similar situations. However, as far as hospital equipment is concerned, it is monitored by voivodes and supplemented on a regular basis - after consulting with the Ministry of Health.

Do we have a plan to move out of the restrictions after the Easter holidays?

Just as we were gradually introducing the restrictions, we will probably gradually move out of them to this „new normality”, which the Prime Minister is talking about. Let me remind you that in Poland, as soon as six days after the first coronavirus case, we cancelled mass events, after eight days we closed schools, after eleven we decided to close the borders. In other countries it took much longer, we want to draw conclusions from this. But I keep repeating - everything will depend on the state of the epidemic after Easter.

Finally, I understand that this problem does not keep you awake these days, but what about the presidential election? The local authorities are asking and pointing to a very tight time margin; 10 May is getting closer.

As the Prime Minister has said, we are now observing how the epidemic will develop in the coming days and weeks. According to the constitution, elections are scheduled for 10 May.

We don’t have time for that. There are many questions about how people are to vote in quarantine, how to set up election commissions, how to vote outside the country… There are plenty of them.

First we need to know what Poland will look like in two or three weeks’ time. We believe that this reality will be sufficiently positive to hold elections without putting anyone in danger. For now, please, let’s stay at home and keep the socialising to an absolute minimum. This is the only way to win as a community.

The interview was published in issue 14/2020 of the weekly „Sieci”.

Tłum. K.J.