“A coincidence? I don't think so.” Bodnar recalls Ziobro's clip

“The executive agreement for this clip (consortium of Euvic Media Sp. z o. o. and Sigma Bis SA) was signed on August 10, 2023. The spot was broadcast for the next 64 days in various media (TVP1, TVP2, Polsat). Remuneration PLN 2.67 million, including media house services PLN 2.5 million,” the minister said.

He also said that the clip's acceptance protocol was signed at the ministry on October 31, 2023, and payment was made on November 24, 2023. “The campaign was financed from the Ministry of Justice. Coincidence? I don't think so,” Bodnar concluded.

The clip, to which the minister provided a link, features Ziobro, convincing that Poland has become one of the safest countries in Europe. – Crime is growing in other countries. Poland must remain safe. It is criminals who should be afraid, not honest people – says the then head of the Ministry of Justice, announcing that from October last year – in accordance with the amendment to the Penal Code – more severe penalties will be introduced for crimes such as murder, rape, sexual offences against children or harming children.

– Poland is our common home. There are 38 million of us. That's 38 million reasons to take care of security – Ziobro noted.

The Minister of Justice had already announced the need to settle the financing of the 2023 election campaign conducted by United Right politicians, among other things in connection with the findings of the investigation into the Justice Fund. Despite the ministry's postulate that National Electoral Commission checked whether the expenditure from the fund was in line with the provisions of the Electoral Code, PAP unofficially learned that the National Electoral Commission – when making a decision on the PiS report – would not take the fund issue into account.

READ ALSO: What decision will the National Electoral Commission make? “PiS will be punished”, but there will be no “massacre”

Regardless of the Ministry of Justice's request regarding the Justice Fund, the Minister of Justice also submitted a motion to the Commission to assess the compliance of the ministry's advertising campaigns from 2019-2023 with the principles of financing election committees. He reported at the time that the ministry had discovered that “expenditures on the ministry's advertising were incurred from credit cards, but the time of broadcasting of these advertisements was very close to the time when the election campaign was underway.”

Last week, the National Electoral Commission did not make a decision on the financial report of the PiS committee from the 2023 parliamentary elections and adjourned the meeting on this matter until August 29. The justification was that after receiving extensive documentation from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, the National Electoral Commission contacted two state institutions: the Government Legislative Centre and the Scientific and Academic Computer Network, to clarify doubts arising from letters that had been received recently.

The consequence of a possible rejection of the financial report could be that PiS could lose up to 75 percent of its nearly PLN 26 million subsidy and up to 75 percent of the subsidy for each seat obtained in parliament.

The provisions of the Electoral Code strictly require the rejection of a financial report if the funds obtained, accepted or spent in violation of the regulations exceed 1 percent of the total funds of the committee. Importantly, the questioned financing must be within the framework of the election campaign, so in the case of reports on last year's elections, only the period from August 8 to October 13, 2023 is examined.

In the case of the PiS committee, the amount of irregular financing would have to reach PLN 387,000 (as it results from the financial report of the PiS committee, the total revenue amounts to PLN 38,781,000). It is also necessary to precisely determine by what amount the entity subsidy and the subsidy should be reduced in the event of a potential rejection of the report.