PiS financial report, waiting for the decision of the National Electoral Commission. Michał Szczerba and Bartłomiej Wróblewski comment

August 29 National Electoral Commission is to meet regarding the financial report of the electoral committee PIS from the parliamentary elections. This includes, among other things, conducting election agitation during events financed from public money. If the National Electoral Commission rejected the report, the party Jaroslaw Kaczynski may lose the subsidy.

Read also: How much can election committees spend on campaigning?

This issue was discussed in “Fakty po Faktach” on TVN24 by the MEP of the Civic Coalition Michał Szczerba and Bartholomew Wroblewski with PiS. – In accordance with the constitutional principle of equality, on the one hand the legislator must establish law so that equal principles are applied to equal entities, for example election committees or political parties, and on the other hand all state bodies, when applying the law, must apply it equally to all entities – said Wróblewski.

In his opinion, “this whole discussion, if we were to stick to the constitutional principle of equality, would not have taken place, because PiS would have already received a discharge from the State Electoral Commission, the decision on the subsidy would have been made, because PiS's actions are in no way different from actions that can be attributed to other election committees”. – In this last election campaign, we saw many actions by the Civic Platform or other committees, where similar accusations could be made. But these accusations are of a political nature, they do not have a legal nature – he added.

Michał Szczerba, addressing Wróblewski, spoke about how the former Minister of Development conducted the election campaign Jadwiga Emilewiczwho ran on the PiS list in the same district as Wróblewski. – The Kostrzyn-Słubice Special Economic Zone organized her campaign events. It even funded special sweatshirts during Nordic Walking in Poznań – he said.

– The Berm event company, which was a contractor for many State Treasury companies, produced a total of PLN 32,000 in an order – there is an invoice for this – sweatshirts for seniors and training for seniors, but also, very interestingly, stickers with the inscription: “Jadwiga Emilewicz number 3 on the Law and Justice list”, which were stuck on sweatshirts that were distributed to seniors. And this is an expense, Mr. MP. Typical election campaigning, which is not included in the financial report – said the MEP.

– This report presented by your committee is falsified, it is a lie, it only includes what was there, but it does not include the key thing that you did not say – he told Wróblewski.

At the same time, Szczerba announced that on Tuesday at the Campus Polska Przyszłości, together with KO MEP Dariusz Joński, he will provide new information regarding irregularities in the financing of the PiS campaign. – Tomorrow at 3:45 p.m., Mr. Wróblewski, you will learn about various new elements of how your competitors from your electoral list financed the election campaign – he addressed the PiS representative.

– Tomorrow we will try to do, I have the impression, what the National Electoral Commission did not do, that is, together with MP Joński, we will sum up everything that is already known, but we will even show new things that you have not seen yet – announced the TVN24 guest.

Szczerba also showed documents in the program regarding – as he said – the financing of the PiS campaign. – One (is – ed.) a donation agreement signed by the KGHM Foundation, and the other is a KGHM sponsorship agreement signed during the 2023 election campaign. One was a donation for the Berm company. The other was a sponsorship agreement, signed after the event that was sponsored. Here is (he showed documents – ed.) 750 thousand, which was withdrawn from KGHM and the KGHM Foundation for the campaign, among others. Jacek SasinMr. Marcin Wolny, Mr. Andrzej Śliwka, Mrs. Elizabeth Witek and other candidates indicated by Jacek Sasin – enumerated Szczerba.

The MEP stated that “both KGHM and the KGHM Foundation were in fact intermediaries in financing the PiS campaign”. The KGHM Foundation made a donation to a company that produced election gadgetsSzczerba had already spoken on TVN24 earlier on August 13.

MP Wróblewski responded that “the National Electoral Commission must apply the law in an equal manner” because “similar types of behaviour are assessed similarly”.

– Since for all 20 years of the functioning of the National Electoral Commission, the practice that exists, events – for example, picnics – were not included in the costs of campaigns organized by local governments or successive governments, (then – editor's note) there is no reason to suddenly change the way it functions – he said.

He also said that during the 2023 election campaign “the marshal of the Opole voivodeship and the starosta of the Poznań district organized picnics and events” also from public funds.