Polish Opposition Loses Funding Due to Misuse of State Funds, Reports Reuters

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s largest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), will face significant reductions in state funding after the electoral commission announced on Thursday that it had misused public funds for its election campaign.

This financial blow to PiS, which secured the most votes in the 2023 general election but lost its majority, is expected to bolster the position of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European Civic Coalition (KO) as it aims to establish itself as the leading political force in Poland.

With a presidential election approaching in 2025, PiS has denounced the decision as an attempt to undermine its electoral prospects. State funding for parties is determined by their electoral performance and is disbursed retroactively.

Sylwester Marciniak, the head of the electoral commission, stated, “When it comes to misusing public funds in election campaigns, I believe this will be a signal for everyone that you need to think twice whether it’s worth it,” when addressing reporters.

The commission indicated that PiS made illegal expenditures totaling 3.6 million zlotys (approximately $930,738) during the 2023 campaign, citing activities such as military recruitment events and advertisements from the justice ministry as examples of improper fund usage.

As a result, PiS will lose about 10 million zlotys (roughly $2.59 million) from funding related to its electoral performance and an additional 10 million zlotys annually until the end of the parliamentary term in 2027. The commission also cautioned that PiS could potentially lose all annual funding.

PiS officials previously condemned any reduction in their funding as an assault on democracy, and the party’s lawmakers reacted angrily to the electoral commission’s ruling. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki labeled the commission’s decision as “shameful” on social media, asserting that it was a move by the current government to seek revenge and marginalize the opposition. Morawiecki stated that PiS would appeal the ruling.

Prosecutors have alleged that members from PiS’s coalition partner, Sovereign Poland, which held a junior government role from 2015 to 2023, misappropriated funds meant for assisting crime victims to win over voters in rural areas.

Marcin Romanowski, a former Deputy Justice Minister, was arrested in July on charges related to fund misuse but was subsequently released after being granted immunity as an assembly member of a European rights body.

The government contends that expenditures related to enhancing child benefits or events promoting military recruitment also constituted misuse of public funds for political purposes, while local media have suggested that state companies were involved in siphoning off funds.

In a social media post following the electoral commission’s decision, Tusk remarked, “PiS has learnt the true meaning of the words law and justice.”