Two days before Poland’s presidential election, it has emerged that a foreign-funded smear campaign was launched to support liberal candidate Rafał Trzaskowski by targeting his main conservative rivals. This happened while government officials were loudly warning about Russian meddling. In reality, the interference came from a group closely tied to the ruling coalition—one that worked hand-in-hand with state agencies meant to protect the vote.
Trzaskowski is the candidate for Civic Coalition (Koalicja Obywatelska, KO), a liberal, pro-EU alliance led by Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party and widely seen as Brussels’ favorite. The group behind the smear campaign, Akcja Demokracja, receives funding from foreign donors connected to George Soros, the American billionaire known for backing left-wing causes across Europe.
Journalists from the portal wp.pl revealed that the group organized the smear campaign against conservative candidates Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen—the main rivals of Rafał Trzaskowski. Approximately 420,000 PLN (€100,000) provided by foreign entities was spent on the campaign.
On Thursday, the Research and Academic Computer Network (NASK), a Polish government agency responsible for data network operations, announced that it had identified political advertisements on Facebook suspected of being financed from abroad. The Internal Security Agency was notified, and the government implemented a “cyber shield” to protect the electoral process, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski. Officials strongly implied Russia was the culprit—yet the real operation was closer to home.
Since April 10, 2025, Facebook has been flooded with political advertisements. Strangely, these ads were posted by two previously unknown profiles: “Wiesz Jak Nie Jest” and “Stół Dorosłych.” The administrators of these profiles remain unidentified.
Some of the ads—presented as conversations with ordinary citizens—strongly criticized candidates Karol Nawrocki (backed by conservative opposition PiS) and Sławomir Mentzen (candidate of right-wing Konfederacja party). Others praised Rafał Trzaskowski.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, disclosed that these anonymous accounts spent over 420,000 PLN—more than any official campaign committee. Just in the final week before the vote, over 230,000 PLN was spent.
According to wp.pl journalists, the smear campaign promoting Rafał Trzaskowski and attacking his competitors was orchestrated by the Akcja Demokracja foundation, led by Jakub Kocjan—a former parliamentary aide to an MP from Civic Coalition. On May 12, Kocjan appeared at a government-sponsored event by NASK to raise awareness about political manipulation online.
In other words, the very people warning of manipulation were themselves running a covert online campaign.
While individuals associated with Akcja Demokracja executed the campaign, the funds originated from another source—a Vienna-based company named Estratos, specializing in digital political marketing.
Estratos Digital GmbH, formerly known as Datadat until 2023, is led by two Hungarians: Ádám Ficsor, a former minister for special services in Gordon Bajnai’s left-wing government, and Viktor Szigetvári.
While NASK was warning about Kremlin influence, its own partner was quietly running a foreign-funded hit job on Polish conservatives.
“Appropriate services should enter NASK today. Materials need to be secured before they’re destroyed. They’ve had information about the illegal campaign for over two weeks and were cooperating with Jakub Kocjan on ‘protecting’ the elections,” said former Minister of Digital Affairs and PiS MP Janusz Cieszyński.
Estratos openly promotes progressive causes and specializes in digital strategy, data analytics, and fundraising. Its majority shareholder is a U.S. investment vehicle called Higher Ground Labs Fund III LP, which is closely linked to the U.S. Democratic Party.
Many organizations utilizing Estratos’s funding system have ties to foundations linked to George Soros, according to niezalezna.pl news site.
Jakub Kocjan has long been associated with Civic Coalition circles. Until recently, he was a social assistant to KO MP Iwona Karolewska, granting him regular access to the Sejm. He participated in meetings of the subcommittee on Poland’s implementation of European Court of Human Rights and European Court of Justice rulings. He resigned from his assistant role in March 2025.
He is also a laureate of the first edition of the Tadeusz Mazowiecki Award by the Mayor of Warsaw (2020). Rafał Trzaskowski honored Kocjan “for pro-democratic and anti-fascist actions, particularly for actively defending the independence of the judiciary.”
Yet that same activist was now helping run a foreign-backed smear campaign to sway the election—while standing beside state officials pretending to guard against foreign interference.
So far, no consequences appear likely for Trzaskowski’s campaign. Sławomir Mentzen, one of the campaign’s victims, fears the opposite—He wrote on X:.
Seriously, the Civic Platform’s behavior is disgusting. Tusk has been proclaiming for weeks that Russia will illegally influence the elections. It turns out that the online campaign, involving insulting and defaming me and Nawrocki, is illegal, but it’s the Civic Platform behind it, not Russia. You in the Civic Platform are not only disgusting. You’re also complete idiots if you thought this wouldn’t come out.
