Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been accused of improperly seeking to organise a remote presidential election during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Public Prosecutor and Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar is calling for his parliamentary immunity to be lifted so that he can be tried. Morawiecki, now an MEP, has denounced this as a political offensive against him.
The events date back to the spring of 2020, during the first, most intense phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister of Poland at the time, Morawiecki had imagined organising a remote presidential election—a procedure that does not normally exist in Poland—and had initiated the process with the post office and the national printing works to prepare the ballot papers.
Ultimately, the operation proved unsuccessful, leaving a bill to pay of €13 million, or just over 56 million złoty, the Polish currency. The presidential election was finally held under the usual arrangements a few months later, resulting in the re-election of Andrzej Duda, who like Morawiecki is a member of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
According to the public prosecutor, Morawiecki’s actions were to the
detriment of the public interest in the form of respect for the legal order and constitutional rights of voters and led to pointless, ineffective and unjustified spending of public funds in a total amount of not less than 56,450,406.16 zloty to the detriment of the state treasury.
In 2020, an administrative court found Morawiecki guilty. He appealed against this decision, but the rejection of the appeal led to new criminal proceedings.
For Morawiecki, the attacks on him are purely political. He believes that he has done nothing other than try to organise elections in a difficult context, with the imperative of respecting the electoral timetable set by the constitution and ensuring the health security of citizens. He defends himself by pointing to another judgement, this time handed down last year by the Constitutional Court, which found that Morawiecki acted in line with the constitution when trying to organise the 2020 elections from a distance. Although he no longer holds a government post in Poland, Morawiecki is a target of the ruling left in Poland, as he now plays a key role at European level as chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
Morawiecki’s opponents support the initiative to lift his immunity and want to use his case to demonstrate the loyalty to Brussels of Polish leaders who have broken with the PiS years. They reject the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the grounds that it is ‘under the influence’ of the PiS. “There are no sacred cows in Poland,” posted the interior minister on X in support of the lifting of the former prime minister’s immunity.
Believing that he has nothing to reproach himself for, Morawiecki said in an interview on Polish television that he was ready to waive his immunity. He sees the legal attack against him as a manoeuvre by the government to cover up its setbacks and poor results, particularly in the economy.
The ruling party has a sufficient majority to obtain the lifting of Morawiecki’s immunity. The request for a review has already been sent to Parliament.
If the procedure is successful, Morawiecki could face up to three years in prison.
