Opposition politicians are seeking to put a senator from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party before a parliamentary ethics committee for comparing the main opposition leader, Donald Tusk, to Adolf Hitler.

On Wednesday, Jacek Bogucki, a PiS Senator, wrote in a X (formerly Twitter) post: “100 years ago, Adolf Hitler first tried to take over the street. 90 years ago, he won the elections in Germany. How it ended … we remember. Fortunately, Poland is not Germany, and Tusk is not Hitler, despite the similarity … of certain actions.”

Under the post, he juxtaposed two posters, one depicting Adolf Hitler and the other Donald Tusk.

Reacting to the post, an MP from the main opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, told a press conference organised in front of PiS’s Warsaw seat on Friday that “comparing any politician to Hitler does not meet the standards of public debate… does not fall within the limits of permitted criticism or freedom of expression.”

“Senator Bogucki’s statement crosses any boundaries acceptable in civilised countries,” she said.

Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka, a deputy speaker of the Senate from the Left party, announced at the same press conference that a motion to punish Bogucki will be filed with the Senate ethics committee in connection with his behaviour.

She said this was not the first such statement by Bogucki and the Senate ethics committee had before reprimanded him for scandalously comparing Donald Tusk to Hitler, but the senator showed no remorse.

On Thursday, Tomasz Grodzki, the Senate speaker from PO, said that with his scandalous entry Bogucki had once again behaved in a manner not befitting the senator’s dignity by libelling Tusk and that Bogucki’s behaviour will not go unanswered.

Asked by the Onet news and entertainment website why he was comparing Tusk to Hitler, Bogucki replied that he had said a long time ago that people’s deaths must not be used for political purposes.

“And Donald Tusk constantly uses people’s deaths and tragedies. And I don’t agree with that,” he said.

In mid-June, Tusk said that Poland’s near-total abortion law should be blamed for the deaths of several pregnant women in hospital, and called PiS politicians “serial killers of women.”