Poland’s political year has begun in a climate of high tension. The Polish National Electoral Commission (PKW) has found irregularities in the financing of the October election campaign of the ultra-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). The electoral authority claims that Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s party illegally spent 3.6 million zlotys (about 840,000 euros) of its budget for the legislative elections. As punishment, it is forcing the party to repay this amount, deducting 2.3 million euros from the 8.9 million euro subsidy it was entitled to cover election expenses and cutting state funding for three years, to a total of 7.6 million euros.
The decision of the electoral authority on Thursday, beyond the possible impact on PiS’s finances, marks the beginning of the campaign for the presidential elections in May 2025, key to unblocking the current paralysis caused by the cohabitation of a liberal prime minister and an ultra-conservative president. Kaczynski and other leaders of the party that governed the country until December of last year consider it an act of revenge by the liberal government coalition and an attack on democracy in the country. The prime minister, Donald Tusk, in a message as brief as it was forceful on the social network X, declared: “PiS is learning the true meaning of the words law and justice.”
Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called the electoral authority’s decision “shameful.” “It is part of the political game of the current government, whose goal is revenge and marginalization of the opposition,” the PiS leader wrote in a message in which he claimed that the ruling was motivated by next year’s presidential elections. For the former leader, the punishment imposed by the PKW is an attempt to eliminate the opposition and “destroy Polish democracy.”
With the statements made by Morawiecki and other politicians, PiS is already trying to capitalise on the decision against it to launch its pre-campaign for the 2025 elections. In addition to presenting itself as the victim of a score-settling that allegedly attacks the foundations of democracy and announcing legal action, it is calling for the mobilisation of its voters by raising funds for the upcoming campaign. The party has 14 days to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, whose ruling will be final.
Use of public funds
The decision by the body that oversees the legality of the elections – where members appointed by the liberals are in the majority over the ultra-conservatives – serves the liberal coalition to reinforce the message that the October 2023 elections were not fair. PiS came out on top, but did not have a majority to govern, despite using state resources in its campaign, as concluded by the PKW. The party used events and publicity material funded with public funds to campaign, according to the findings of the National Electoral Commission.
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One of the main electoral promises of Tusk and his supporters was to carry out a thorough clean-up of the institutions controlled by PiS, as well as to bring to justice those responsible for the excesses of the ultra-conservatives. As part of these efforts, this Thursday the Attorney General, who is also the Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, asked the European Parliament to remove the immunity of MEP Michal Dworczyk, Morawiecki’s right-hand man, in order to accuse him of obstruction of justice.
Poland has had one election after another since October 2023. After the autumn legislative elections, regional and local elections were held in the spring of this year, in which PiS demonstrated that it was maintaining its voter base despite failing to win a government majority. In the European elections in June, Tusk finally won the majority. overtaking The government has been able to win the vote of the ultra-conservatives it had been craving for, but it was only by the slimmest of margins. In May 2025, the government will be playing for its governability with the presidential elections. The head of state does not have great powers, but he has the power to veto legislation and government appointments. This is exactly what Andrzej Duda – a member of PiS until he became president – is doing, effectively preventing the executive from carrying out the reforms it promised its voters.
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