Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s anti-beaver crusade has been recognised not only in Poland, but even abroad. Anna Maria Żukowska, head of the parliamentary club of the Left, admitted in an interview with Polsat News that the ground-and-water rodents are unlikely to need a spokesperson to defend their rights, yet they are unlikely to be blamed for exacerbating the effects of the floods. ‘This is interesting, because there are no beavers at all in the areas that were flooded - the politician stressed.

Your suggestions are not the first ones that we need rapid change when it comes to the presence of beavers on the dikes. We made the decisions in 2010, environmentalists were annoyed, but there are priorities. Sometimes you have to choose between the love of animals and the safety of cities, villages and the stability of embankments

— announced Prime Minister Donald Tusk the day before yesterday during the emergency assembly in Głogów.

Żukowska: Perhaps the map was unfamiliar to the Prime Minister

The statement about the beavers triggered a discussion not only in Poland. Politico wrote about it as well. Tusk was ridiculed not only by the Polish biologist and beaver expert Dr Andrzej Czech, but even by Gerhard Schwab, the famous naturalist from Bavaria known, among other things, as the ‘Godfather of beavers’ and ‘Pablo Escobar’.

In an interview with Polsat News, MEP Anna Maria Żukowska was - humorously - asked by editor Marcin Fijołek whether the Left would like to appoint a Beaver Spokesman (in reference to the group’s election demand for an Animal Rights Commissioner). The presenter pointed out that the Prime Minister recently ‘blamed beavers for exacerbating the effects of flooding’.

This is interesting because there are no beavers at all in the areas that were flooded, they don’t live there. Perhaps a map of the distribution of beaver habitats in the country was unfamiliar to the Prime Minister

— replied the Left politician.

‘’The beavers are absolutely essential‘’

Żukowska recalled a statement made by her club colleague Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic, who pointed out at a session of the parliament that Poland is the only country that does not protect dikes from animal interference.

The presenter asked whether such words could be a ‘gateway for mass culling’ of the beaver.

No, this is an absurd proposal, because where beavers are present, they increase the so-called small retention, which slows down the flow of water

— Anna Maria Żukowska pointed out.

Beavers are absolutely essential for our ecosystem

— she added.

And perhaps all left-liberal celebrities should flood Prime Minister Donald Tusk… with beaver overlays on their social media profile pictures, just as they fought the PiS ‘regime’ with a boar profile, amongst other things.

Tłum. K.J.