Supraśl. The dispute over the division of the commune has been going on for 20 years. There will be no referendum, there is a petition online

As we wrote in May, the dispute over whether to separate the Grabówka commune from the Supraśl commune near Białystok has been going on for 20 years.. Secession is demanded by some residents of five villages: Grabówka, Henrykowo, Sobolewo, Sowlany and Zaścianki.

These towns are located right next to Białystok, close to the border crossing point Belarus in Bobrowniki – national road number 65. Supraśl, where the seat of the commune authorities is located, lies on the other side of the forest dividing the commune (the aforementioned towns are said to be “behind the forest”) and is more than 20 kilometers away from Białystok. To get from Grabówka to Supraśl, for example, you have to drive – also using local roads – more than 14 kilometers.

The key argument of the supporters of the creation of a new commune is not geography, but money. As Radosław Sakowski, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of the Supraśl commune (he lost to the long-term mayor Radosław Dobrowolski, who is against secession), told us, the residents of the five aforementioned localities contribute more than 70 percent of the revenue from PIT taxand do not receive enough investment in return.

Mayor Radosław Dobrowolski explained to us that approximately 500 new people settle in the entire commune each year, and particularly in the five towns in question.

– So it's hard to expect us to keep up with paving all the roads at once and installing sewage systems everywhere. Yes, over 70 percent of PIT tax revenues come from these villages, but on an annual basis we spend over 60 percent of budget funds on investments in these towns, over 70 percent, including funds for education – said the mayor in May.

The most important moment of the ongoing dispute took place in July 2015, when – during the government Ewa Kopacz – Council of Ministers issued a regulation on the creation of a new commune. Although a referendum had been held earlier on the matter, in which 55 percent of the residents of the entire commune voted against the division, the government took into account the fact that in the five towns that were to be included in the new commune, the vast majority (78 percent) of voters voted for the division.

The Grabówka commune was to begin operating at the beginning of 2016, but on 28 December 2015 Beata Szydło repealed her predecessor’s regulation.

After 50 people filed a motion in this matter PO MPs application to the Constitutional Tribunal, which ruled on 1 June 2017 that the December regulation of Beata Szydło's government was inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Act on Local Government. Despite this, the Grabówka commune has not yet been established.

The case came back after the change of government in Poland. At the beginning of April 2024, the then Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Marcin Kierwinski announced the commencement of the procedure for establishing a new commune. At the same time, the ministry asked the Supraśl commune council for an opinion on the matter of secession (the opinion is not binding, its absence does not suspend the procedure).

The councillors of the Supraśl commune (Mayor Radosław Dobrowolski had the majority in it) decided by resolution of 18 April that the form of consultation would be a new referendum. It was to be held on 2 June, but it did not take place. The Podlaskie voivode invalidated the resolution of the councillors. His lawyers stated that it was passed with a significant violation of the law. They also pointed out, among other things, the lack of a date for the referendum and the lack of a printed seal on the ballot paper, which was an annex to the resolution.

Mayor Dobrowolski called these shortcomings minor and announced that he would like to conduct public consultations on the matter.

Now these predictions are coming true. An online petition has been created against the division of the Supraśl commune.

“We demand that the procedure aimed at dividing the Supraśl commune be discontinued, that the intention to divide it be abandoned and that it be left within its current borders,” write the authors of the petition.

In their opinion, the government documents do not contain any “substantive justification, in particular financial, social and economic analyses” justifying the separation of Grabówka.

They also emphasize that the division of the commune will “destroy the current commune with very good demographic and development indicators, achieving a number of successes, which has been confirmed in many national and local rankings, will rapidly slow down the development of the Supraśl health resort, which serves not only the residents of the commune, but also the wider community, will lead to a glaring deterioration of the situation of the reduced Supraśl commune and its residents due to the deprivation of over 70 percent of its economic areas (production and services).”

– This is an unfair selection of residents, a social injustice that is happening in the middle of Europe – this is how the mayor of Supraśl, Radosław Dobrowolski, says about the division of the commune.

In his opinion, a rich commune (Grabówka) and a poor one (Supraśl) will be created.

– A rich commune that will become part of Białystok in a few years and a poor commune that will simply have to “catch oxygen”, that will have to pay off loans. It is very unfair, discriminatory – Dobrowolski believes.

So far, the online petition, available since last Friday, has been signed by over 260 people.

Meanwhile, the list of legislative and programmatic works of the Council of Ministers has published information about a draft regulation on the establishment of the Grabówka commune. The draft is to be adopted by the government in the third quarter. The commune is to start operating from the beginning of the new year.