Poland’s new Europhile government continues to tear up the rulebook in its relentless pursuit of the country’s opposition, with the regime now being accused of politicizing the country’s central bank.
Plans to drag the country’s central bank president before a special tribunal is the latest stage in this campaign. The Tusk government is alleging that the National Bank of Poland (NBP) among other things adjusted monetary policy before the October election to benefit the ousted Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Accusations from the government against NBP President Adam Glapińsky include unlawfully buying government bonds and ‘misleading accounting.’ Tusk also alleges that the central bank’s cutting of interest rates a month before the election was politically motivated.
Poland’s Constitutional Court in January ruled that the government does not have the authority to make the National Bank of Poland (NBP) president appear in front of a tribunal—something Tusk has ignored.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde suggested in an official memo that the NBP could appeal to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) to evaluate the lawfulness of the government’s action if Tusk attempts to prosecute Glapiński, as this could constitute an undermining of the central bank’s independence.
Scathing of Warsaw’s march towards authoritarianism under Tusk—and quietly confident that courts would invalidate the threatened tribunal—PiS MEP Beata Szydło told The European Conservative that the harassment of the Polish Central Bank is “‘purely politically motivated and has no factual or legal basis.”
“The Polish economy will soon be harmed by other actions of the Tusk government, especially the total disruption of the Polish prosecutor’s office and judiciary,” she added.
Poland’s state broadcaster—like the diplomatic service—has already been gutted by a Tusk purge institutionally designed to cripple conservative power in the country forever, with two MPs finding themselves in jail and even on hunger strike due to what they say are spurious corruption charges. The European Commission is accused of turning a blind eye to extensive rule-of-law abuses.
Pressure is now on central bank president Glapiński to resign, amid warnings that Poland risks financial chaos because of the bitter institutional feud.
Despite his uncertain future at the bank, Glapiński was conciliatory declaring to media that he would “send a letter to Mr Tusk to say that there are so many misunderstandings and so many bad words, which were from both sides, that I think it is time to meet and talk,” while calling claims that his bank was engineering inflation for political reasons “idiotic.” If called in front of the tribunal, Glapińsky said he had nothing to hide and was “of course” ready to defend his actions.
The relative silence from the international community—and the EU in particular—over the purge of right-wingers is a stark contrast to the previous half-decade pursuit of the now departed PiS government. Brussels linked future EU cash injections to the Tusk government’s ability to fire right-wing judges as the Commission greenlit a €137 billion financial package.
