The leftist-liberal government of Poland is continuing its persecution of its main political rival, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
On Thursday, March 6th the Polish parliament voted to lift the legal immunity of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former defence minister in the PiS-led government, Mariusz Błaszczak.
The incumbent Tusk government wants Błaszczak to be prosecuted for allegedly disclosing classified information about historical military plans in 2023, while serving as defence minister. If found guilty, he could be imprisoned for up to five years.
Kaczyński in turn is being sued privately by a member of the European Parliament from Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) party, Krzysztof Brejza.
A third PiS MP, Dariusz Matecki, also faces indictment by prosecutors for allegedly defrauding the public Justice Fund.
The lawfare waged against the three opposition members of parliament is just another chapter in Tusk’s anti-democratic playbook that has included the unlawful arrest of opposition MPs and former ministers, the withholding of state funding to PiS, the forceful takeover of the public media and the prosecutor’s office, as well as repeated total disregard for court rulings.
Former PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has also been charged recently with abuse of power for simply trying to organise elections through entirely mail-in ballots in early 2020, at the height of the first COVID-19 lockdowns.
While the conservative Ordo Iuris think tank in Warsaw has described the current system in Poland as a “militant democracy,” the liberal elites in Brussels have embraced Tusk’s government and its leftist agenda, and even rewarded it with billions of euros of EU funds, turning a blind eye to the blatant violations of the rule of law.
Speaking at a press conference before the parliament’s vote on Thursday, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said the Tusk government has created an atmosphere of intimidation, “one that has not existed in Poland since the times of communism.”
Mariusz Błaszczak’s ‘crime’ was to disclose official documents that showed how Tusk’s Civic Platform had in 2011—when it was previously in power—planned to give up half of Poland if Russia invaded.
PO claims that Błaszczak had revealed sensitive military secrets but PiS argues Błaszczak had already declassified the information before publishing some sections of it, and as the plans were no longer in force, his actions did not threaten Poland’s security.
In a post on his X account on Thursday, Błaszczak said it was his obligation to make the public aware of what happened under the previous PO government:
BLOCK QUOTE First, so that no one would try to implement such plans again. Second, so that the inhabitants of Eastern Poland would know what fate the first government of Tusk was preparing for them.
Meanwhile, Jarosław Kaczyński is facing a lawsuit for slander after he accused PO MEP Krzysztof Brejza of committing “very serious and repugnant crimes.” He made the comments last year during an investigation into the use of the Pegasus spyware by the PiS government.
PO has accused Kaczyński of using Pegasus to spy on opposition politicians during the PiS-era but Kaczyński rejected these claims, and said that the probe was part of Tusk’s witch hunt.
