Poland is facing a state crisis: After the arrest of two convicted PiS politicians, President Duda sharply criticized the authorities. He will fight for her release. The power struggle with Prime Minister Tusk is escalating.
The conflict in Poland between the voted-out national-conservative PiS government and the new center-left government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk could escalate into a serious national crisis.
After the arrest of two legally convicted PiS politicians in the presidential palace, President Andrzej Duda spoke out. Duda said in Warsaw that he was deeply shocked by “the zeal and brutality, both in legal, physical and media terms.” He will not rest until former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former State Secretary Maciej Wasik are released. Both are “crystal clear honest people”.
Duda, who comes from the PiS, received Kaminski and Wasik at the presidential palace on Tuesday when the police were supposed to take them to prison. After several hours in the official residence, the PiS politicians were caught there and have been in prison ever since.
Two years in prison for abuse of office
Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of office in an appeal by a Warsaw district court in December and were due to begin their sentences.
Duda pardoned the two after an initial trial in 2015. However, the Supreme Court declared this pardon to be unlawful because the appeal process was still ongoing at the time. Duda now emphasized again that, in his opinion, the pardon was still valid.
Power struggle escalates
The case illustrates the difficulties that new Prime Minister Tusk is encountering in his efforts to reverse controversial reforms by the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS). The European Union accused the government at the time, among other things, of undermining the independence of the judiciary and thus the democratic separation of powers.
The Tusk government has been in office since mid-December – and since then, the voted out national conservative PiS and the pro-European new government have been engaged in a power struggle that is noticeably escalating. A parliamentary session that was originally scheduled for today was postponed until next week due to the chaotic situation.
“Sabotage of the Constitution”
Tusk threatened Duda and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski that they would be held responsible for “sabotage of the constitution.” The visibly upset Prime Minister had previously sent clear words to Duda: “Mr. President, my fervent appeal for the good of the Polish state: You must end this spectacle. It will lead us into a very dangerous situation.” The actions targeted the foundations of the state.
With regard to the president’s behavior, Tusk also quoted from the Polish penal code: “Anyone who obstructs or frustrates criminal proceedings by helping a criminal to evade criminal responsibility (…) will be punished with a prison sentence of three months to up to punished for five years.”
So far, however, there is little to suggest that the political situation in the EU and NATO country is calming down. One of the two convicted PiS politicians spoke out from prison. Kaminski, once Poland’s interior minister, called himself a “political prisoner.” As such, he will go on hunger strike. The new government’s deputy justice minister, Maria Ejchart, reacted immediately and said that Kaminski was not a political prisoner. Duda announced that he would fight for Kaminski’s release.