Deputy Prosecutor General Michał Ostrowski launched an investigation into an alleged coup in which Prime Minister Donald Tusk might be involved, according to Euractiv.
Ostrowski said he had signed a 60-page complaint in late January against the alleged commission of the offence by key members of the incumbent government. Tusk and other leaders were accused of attempting to change Poland’s constitution.
I have issued a decision to launch an investigation into a statutory coup and the use of threats and unlawful violence to influence constitutional bodies of law, such as the Constitutional Tribunal, KRS, the Supreme Court, common courts, as well as the National Broadcasting Council.
Prosecutors initiated the probe after President of the Constitutional Tribunal Bogdan Święczkowski filed a complaint alleging that Tusk and other senior politicians, including the speakers of both houses of parliament, the head of the Government Legislation Centre, and several judges and prosecutors, were guilty of orchestrating the coup d’état.
In December 2023, the Tusk government promised to restore the rule of law by reversing the judicial reforms implemented by the PiS government between 2015 and 2023. The reforms, which affected the Constitutional Tribunal, the National Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court, were considered by the European Court of Justice as undermining the independence of the judiciary.
The changes also prompted the European Commission to initiate Article 7 proceedings against Poland and to freeze NextGenerationEU funds. With judicial reform is progressing slower than the government wants due to the opposition of President Andrzej Duda, the Constitutional Tribunal is still dominated by judges appointed during the PiS government.
Ostrowski stated that he had already taken the first steps in the investigation, but emphasised that no documents related to the coup had yet been received by the National Prosecutor’s Office or other agencies.
Tusk mocked the investigation in a post on X platform, writing “Coup d’état” and sharing a video of him playing ping-pong.
Meanwhile, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński welcomed the Tribunal’s decision.
This is how […] a series of other actions that openly violate the law and the Constitution should be classified.
