Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his ministers are stepping up a campaign to hold PiS accountable for corruption they say took place during the populist party’s eight-year tenure, which ended in December, POLITICO reports.
Several PiS MPs and members of its junior far-right coalition partner, the Sovereign Poland party, face trials and jail terms, which could weaken them ahead of next year’s crucial 2025 presidential election.
The presidential election is PiS’s best hope of preventing Tusk from consolidating power. A PiS president could, as incumbent Andrzej Duda has done, complicate Tusk’s programme because the prime minister does not have a large enough parliamentary majority to override a presidential veto.
Tusk has repeatedly been rebuked for his focus on PiS, with his detractors claiming it is at the expense of ambitious government projects and other issues such as doubling tax-free income.
But he shows no sign of backing away from his campaign promise to prosecute any offences of the past administration – which was rare in Poland.
Last month, Tusk condemned his predecessors as: “Thieves, scoundrels, people without conscience, who robbed Poland for so many years,” adding: “This is one of the four commitments I made, and it was ‘we will hold evil to account.’ Do you want it faster? It will be faster.”
The new government is accusing the old one of wasting vast amounts of money on a greenfield project to build a huge new airport in central Poland, mismanagement at PKN-Orlen, the state-controlled refiner, and other government-controlled companies, abuse of the public media by turning them into propaganda outlets for PiS, buying spyware to track political opponents, stuffing the senior ranks of the administration and state companies with loyalists, and using government money as a political slush fund. Justice Minister and Chief Prosecutor Adam Bodnar said over the weekend:
“These cases are very numerous, and they require extraordinary determination on the part of prosecutors, but also great attention to detail. Accounting for the abuses of the previous government cannot be a propaganda mechanism, it must be proper legal work.”
The opposition insists that Tusk and his administration have launched a witch hunt against them. Michał Woś, an MP with Sovereign Poland, said in a Tuesday press conference:
“We appeal to all people of good will to get involved in the defense of these persecuted people, who are being brutalised on the orders of Tusk and Bodnar.”
Woś was stripped of his parliamentary immunity last month over allegations that he was involved in the purchase of Pegasus spy equipment, which the government believes was improperly acquired and then used to spy on opposition politicians.
The Tusk-led parliamentary majority is expected to lift the immunity of Marcin Romanowski, another Sovereign Poland MP and former deputy justice minister, this week. He is accused of involvement in the misuse of the Justice Fund, a special cash fund overseen by the justice minister that was intended to help victims of crime but was used for political purposes, according to prosecutors.
Tusk said this week that more than 112 million zloty (26 million euros) had been stolen from the fund. Prosecutors believe the scale of the misuse could be much larger, potentially up to 400 million zlotys.
Political impact
Leading figures in the PiS government, including former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, leader of the Sovereign Poland party and PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, may be implicated in the Justice Fund scandal.
Last week, Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Kaczyński sent a letter to Ziobro shortly before the 2019 parliamentary elections, warning him to refrain from using the fund for political purposes as it could backfire on both parties. This letter was apparently ignored during the campaign, which was eventually won by a bipartisan coalition.
Ziobro, who is undergoing treatment for cancer and has virtually withdrawn from public life, told the Interia news website that he “does not remember receiving the letter.” He said:
“As I understand it, in the content of the letter, Jarosław Kaczyński relied on media reports. He indicated that if these reports were true, he expected certain actions.”
Kaczyński said he did not remember the letter, but it was possible that it had been sent. He said it would have been a way to notify Ziobro – who also served as attorney general – that he should pay attention to possible problems with the Justice Fund’s money. Kaczyński told a press briefing:
“I addressed the letter to the most appropriate person in this matter. We didn’t bend any law, it wasn’t our grouping, it was settled and the case has been … judged.”
Given that PiS and Sovereign Poland co-financed the election campaign in 2019 and 2023, the illegal funding could lead to the election authorities depriving them of a state subsidy of more than PLN 25 million per year. Both parties could also be obliged to return all funds received during 2019-2023.
This would undermine their ability to campaign effectively in the upcoming elections.
PiS and its allies are closing ranks over allegations of impropriety and have used the temporary arrest of Michal Olszewski, a Roman Catholic priest, to portray the government as fanatics seeking revenge.
Olszewski was arrested on charges that the foundation he ran received a 100 million zloty subsidy from the Justice Foundation and then some of the money evaporated. His supporters claim he was mistreated and tortured in prison, but the justice ministry strongly denies the accusation.
“We are shocked by the information we received regarding the circumstances of the arrest and detention of Father Michael Olszewski, who is currently in temporary custody,” said PiS MP Michał Wójcik. Other MPs accused the new government of conducting “political trials” against its enemies.
Judicial reforms
Another major task for the Tusk government is to undo the PiS judicial reforms that have brought Warsaw into conflict with the European Commission, which has said Poland is deviating from the bloc’s democratic principles by undermining the independence of the courts.
Bodnar is working to restore the independence and impartiality of the courts.
Last week, prosecutors, counterintelligence and police officers searched the offices of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body that appoints judges, to seize documents related to disciplinary proceedings brought against judges who opposed PiS’s judicial reforms.
The raid was denounced by PiS-supporting media as a “revenge coalition” attack aimed at damaging its political rivals. Bodnar also created a special council to check the participation of judges in the judicial council influenced by PiS.
Meanwhile, PiS called its supporters to a protest outside parliament on Tuesday night. The party said:
“The violation of the rule of law is unfortunately a daily occurrence today.”
This is the same accusation PiS has faced during its eight years in power.
