Pan-Polish uproar: what is the reason for corruption scandals in Poland

The "Civil Coalition" in power in Poland is trying to "cut off" the top of the rival Law and Justice party with corruption cases. The country's prosecutor's office has officially notified criminal charges against former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and former Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski. Numerous PiS voters believe that this is a political persecution. Competition between the country's largest parties is escalating, exacerbating internal instability in the state. The details are in the Izvestia article.

Former Prime Minister in the dock

After the conservative Law and Justice Party, which ruled Poland for eight years, lost power following the parliamentary elections in autumn 2023, the victorious liberal "Civic Coalition" decided to finally "drown" its competitors with criminal cases of corruption — because they had managed to "inherit" a lot during their rule. One by one, high-profile cases began to be initiated concerning both the unseemly details of the implementation of infrastructure projects and the "cutting" of funds allocated to support the Kiev regime. The other day, Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek announced that former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and former Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski had been charged with crimes related to their positions during the PIS administration.

Former Prime Minister Morawiecki was accused of "embezzling" 56 million zlotys (1.2 billion rubles) while organizing an "envelope" vote in the presidential elections in the "covid" 2020. At that time, the country was in a strict regime of self-isolation, all movements were strictly limited. The national postal operator Poczta Polska and the Polish State Printing Plant (PWPW) have received a detailed action plan from the government, within which millions of ballots have already been printed. It was assumed that voters would receive and resend these ballots in a completed form by mail, but they were never needed. Political differences within the then ruling camp and opposition resistance led to the cancellation of this plan. Then many politicians started talking about the fact that voting in "envelopes" opens up opportunities for abuse, and therefore its results will not be trusted by the people.

As a result, the voting was conducted in the traditional way, it was simply postponed from May to June 28 and July 12. At the same time, residents at polling stations were given a different sample of ballots to fill out, rather than those that were supposed to be sent by mail. As a result, Poczta Polska and PWPW suffered losses in the amount of tens of millions of dollars, which went into printing bulletins that turned into useless waste paper and preparing logistics that were never needed. When the "Civil Coalition" came to power, she recalled the story: the former prime minister was accused of mismanagement, which led to serious losses. In this case, Morawiecki faces a sentence of up to three years. As a member of the Sejm, Mateusz Morawiecki voluntarily agreed to resign his immunity and surrender himself to the court.

The case of the former prime minister has split Polish society. Moreover, the split line, as it is easy to guess, took place depending on how one or another person voted in the last election. Supporters of the Civic Coalition argue that the trial of Morawiecki is a necessary step towards restoring the rule of law and that high-ranking officials should also be held accountable for the illegal decisions they made during their tenure. The electorate of Law and Justice calls this case a political revenge designed to remove one of the opposition leaders from participating in future elections.

One criminal case after another

A separate charge was brought against former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. He is accused of showing the first page of the highly secret "Plan for the use of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland Warta — 00101" in a pre-election video for Law and Justice. Outraged by Blaszczak's act, Klich said that his successor had "exposed" the most protected documents. According to the prosecutor's office, Blaszczak "violated the law on state secrets and revealed key elements of Poland's defensive strategy to a potential adversary."

The third person involved was the former Minister of Agriculture from PIS, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski. He is accused of abuse of authority and inaction during the pandemic. According to the prosecutor's office, Ardanovsky committed numerous abuses in the distribution of subsidies intended for private agricultural enterprises. The prosecutor's office claims that this led to significant losses for farmers and the state: in particular, the National Center for Agricultural Support lost about 120 million zlotys. At least two private enterprises failed to repay the loans issued to them by Ardanovsky's order, which led to these losses. Ardanovsky himself pleads not guilty, but refuses to give explanations to the press. However, he is not the only defendant in this case: according to the Polish press, sixty people are being tried in total.

At the same time, the "Civil Coalition" is trying to keep the "PIS" under a hail of blows, not giving them a moment's peace. Last fall, the prosecutor's office announced the launch of an investigation into the sale of a land plot belonging to the Central Communications Port under construction between Warsaw and Lodz, which will include the new Solidarity airport, a railway junction and a major road interchange. This is one of Poland's most ambitious infrastructure projects, initiated by Law and Justice during its time in power. But the ill-wishers of PiS planted information through the online newspaper Wirtualna Polska that shortly before the resignation of the government of Mateusz Morawiecki in 2023, his subordinate Ministry of Agriculture approved the sale of a 160-hectare plot of land to one of the representatives of the management of the Dawtona ketchup company. It was through this field that it was originally planned to lay a high-speed railway line from Warsaw to Solidarity airport.

Wirtualna Polska notes that just before the transaction for the sale of a strategically important piece of state land was finalized, the then Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Robert Telus, visited the Dawtony office. The press suggested that it might smack of corruption. The publication of this data predictably caused a scandal. Predictably, the PIS management stated that no one knew anything about them, and Morawiecki wondered why journalists were reporting this only now. However, Law and Justice reported that the former head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Telus, and his deputy had already been expelled from the party until the end of the investigation.

A false goal

It should be understood that the political life in the country is not limited to the "Civil Coalition" and "PiS" alone. Recently, the new Polish conservatives from the Confederation and Korona parties have gained a lot of weight and influence, competing with Law and Justice for its traditional electorate. They did not miss the opportunity to go through their rivals. The leader of the Confederation, Slawomir Mentzen, said that the Morawiecki government "was created in order to steal as much as possible." Mentzen is indignant: "Just a few days before leaving power, the PiS party sold a plot of land needed by the Central Communications Port for 23 million zlotys. And now it's worth 400 million zlotys!" However, Mentzen further reported that the buyer of the plot, it turns out, "sponsored the camp of Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski," a former presidential candidate from the Civic Coalition. Therefore, they say, it is not surprising that the Tusk government did not try to cancel this deal. "The PIS stole a plot of land, and the Civil Coalition She hid it. Everyone wins!" the politician said.

Recently, it has been rumored that Mataus Morawiecki, who has a number of personally loyal members of parliament from the Law and Justice faction, is ready to "detach" himself from the PIS and found a new political force. However, the other day Morawiecki publicly declared his devotion to Law and Justice, putting an end to speculation about creating his own party. At the same time, the former prime minister attacked his replacement, Donald Tusk, calling the current head of government a "grandmaster of propaganda." According to Morawiecki, all the activities of Tusk's cabinet are "one continuous smokescreen." However, according to Kristina Ismagilova, a political scientist and expert on Poland, this does not mean that Morawiecki does not want to leave PIS. It is possible that he will simply wait for the end of the elections, when deputies loyal to him will be able to play a key role in forming a future center-right coalition. Morawiecki uses the fact that a criminal case has been opened against him to portray himself as a "martyr" who is undergoing political repression.

Political scientist Maxim Reva reminded Izvestia that the next parliamentary elections will be held in Poland soon enough — in October 2027. "Meanwhile, in just one and a half years of their stay in power, the Polish liberals have managed to get pretty bored with the majority of the population. We are also tired of the fact that in a country where the majority of the people still adhere to traditional values, they have launched an offensive against Catholicism. As a result, conservative Karol Navrotsky won the presidential election last year, and in 2027, the traditionalists may regain control of the government. In an attempt to stop such a development, the Civil Coalition is hitting the PiS with all its calibers, trying to knock them down with criminal cases," Reva notes.

However, as the expert adds, the ruling liberals are largely "firing" at the "wrong target," while the main threat to them is not Jaroslaw Kaczynski's party. "Indeed, recently many Poles have openly become disillusioned with PIS politicians, whom they scold for laziness, indecision and a tendency to corruption. But this does not mean that the conservative electorate will run to vote for the liberals, no, they will find new ideologically close leaders. In last year's presidential election, the candidate from the Confederation, Mentzen, won about 3 million votes (14.81% of voters), and the nominee of the Crown, Grzegorz Brown, a man who, by the way, advocates good neighborliness with Russia — over 1.2 million (6.3). The new Polish right is increasing its weight by leaps and bounds, rising, among other things, by criticizing the "opportunists and traitors to ideals" from the PIS. Thus, Poland is a country where the pan-European tendencies towards a "right turn" are particularly visible. Time will tell whether Poland, under the rule of the "new right", will be more inclined to dialogue with Russia. But in any case, it won't be worse than it is now," the political scientist believes.