During the 2019 Polish election campaign, a number of opposition politicians were wiretapped. Now it has emerged: the affair is even bigger than expected. PiS party members were also spied on.
“I don’t want to surprise you,” says Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, “but perhaps this information will surprise you.”
Tusk speaks with Andrzej Duda, the Polish President, and the surprise is an investigation into the largest wiretapping affair in Polish post-reunification history: Pegasus, the so-called Polish Watergate.
Spy software commissioned and financed in secret
“Unfortunately, the document here confirms what we feared: that at the initiative of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, the purchase of Pegasus with funds from the Justice Fund was requested and confirmed by Minister Ziobro. I have to say, this makes me very sad,” said Tusk.
Translated, this means: The PiS government, in the form of the Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who was in office until recently, commissioned the purchase of the Pegasus spy software for the equivalent of 9.6 million euros and financed it in secret – with funds that were actually intended to support… were intended for victims of crime.
Opposition was bugged in 2019
Pegasus was noticed because during the 2019 election campaign, supposedly leaked messages from Krzysztof Brejza, the campaign leader of the then opposition and now co-ruling PO party, were suddenly shown on state television TVP. During the election campaign, the PiS was also remarkably well informed about every step of the opposition campaign, Brejza later said.
“During the election campaign, the PiS people accompanied us every step of the way. Wherever we went, they showed up,” he reports. “That’s why I’m of the opinion that the matter should be cleared up quickly in a committee of inquiry, because all of this has influenced the freedom and honesty of the elections.”
PiS politicians were also spied on
A number of opposition politicians, a public prosecutor critical of PiS, journalists, members of the state audit office and – as has now become known – apparently also PiS politicians themselves were allegedly tapped. Even the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who was in office until recently, is said to have been on the Pegasus list.
The use of the spying software in Poland was so excessive that even the manufacturer – the Israeli company NSO – revoked Poland’s license.
For PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, the affair is still a “badly inflated balloon”: “From what I know – although I don’t know anything specific about this matter – Prime Minister Morawiecki was certainly not wiretapped.” Everything that was done was in the interests of the Polish nation, says Kaczyński.
Reprocessing first Change of government
As early as 2023, an investigative commission came to the conclusion that Pegasus was used to systematically monitor people against whom there was no suspicion of a crime. The report had no legal consequences.
Only now, after the change of government, can the affair really be dealt with. A parliamentary commission of inquiry has been in place since Monday.
Questionable support from President Duda
President Duda doesn’t seem at all surprised by Tusk’s statements. The PiS-affiliated head of state says he is in favor of an investigation – but not without reservations: “Above all, I expect integrity from the state. For me, Minister Mariusz Kaminski is such an honest person.”
Kaminski is not a blank slate. The PiS politician was sentenced to prison for abuse of office. But he was initially hidden from the police by President Duda and later pardoned. And Kaminski was the PiS interior minister who, if not controlled, then presumably used the Pegasus wiretapping operation.
The new Polish government can hardly count on real support from President Duda in the investigation.
Martin Adam, ARD Warsaw, tagesschau, February 19, 2024 12:17 p.m