Top European lawmaker slammed for hostile comment

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Some European Parliament members are calling for the dismissal of the Polish deputy head of the parliament after he made a very hostile comment about a Polish European lawmaker.

Ryszard Czarnecki, from Poland's ruling conservative party, used a derogatory term to comment on words spoken by Roza Thun und Hohenstein, a European Parliament lawmaker from Poland's main opposition party.

The two parties are at loggerheads over the current shape of Poland's politics. Under the current government, elected in 2015, Poland is in deep conflict with European Union leaders who say its policies violate basic EU values. Poland's government says it is misunderstood.

Thun, who has spent decades fighting for Poland's sovereignty and democracy, has appeared in a film by German state NDR Television in which she said that under the ruling Law and Justice party, Poland was turning away from the EU and was veering toward a "dictatorship."

Czarnecki, reputed for making strong statements, reacted by comparing Thun to Poles who during World War II denounced other Poles and Jews to the occupying Germans.

Liberal European lawmakers said in a letter to parliament head Antonio Tajani that such words were "deplorable behavior (that) cannot be connected with the European Parliament" and called for Czarnecki to be dismissed.

There has been no criticism of Czarnecki's words from Poland's government.

Tajani will discuss the call for Czarnecki's dismissal next week, his press office said Friday.