The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity called the former Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobra to immediate apologies after the words that were said during his Wednesday press conference. The politician spoke about PLN 40 million, which the Foundation was to donate to the flood victims, Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The president of the Foundation Jerzy Owsiak denied these reports.
Jerzy Owsiak He informed on Thursday in social media with legal steps taken by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. “We sent today at 13:18 to the address of the parliamentary office of Mr. Ziobra in Rzeszów at 17 Grunwaldzka Street and to the email address kontakt.ziobro@gmail.com Call for immediate apologies of the Foundation for false information that Mr. Ziobro provided during a press conference on March 12, 2025” – wrote the president.
This is the reaction of the orchestra to the statement of the former Minister of Justice, PiS MP Zbigniew Ziobra from Wednesday. During the press conference in front of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, the politician accused the prime minister that “from under his finger he donated to the flood victims to Jerzy Owsiak and his foundation.” He also stated that State Treasury companies “were forced” to transfer further funds to the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity.
– Donald Tusk For unknown reasons, he did not decide to provide financial support to organizations such as the Polish Red Cross, Caritas, Polish Humanitarian Action, “said the PiS MP. He added that the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity has no experience in providing help to victims of natural disasters.
The President of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity denies the words of Ziobra
Jerzy Owsiak denied this information on the same day. – We have never received an office of PLN 40 million from any official currently holding the office – said Jerzy Owsiak of the Polish Press Agency and wrote the same thing on social media. He announced that he would ask the bank where the foundation has his accounts, confirming that there was no such payment.
On Thursday, mBank issued a statement with the following content: “mBank SA confirms that from 01/09/2024 to 10/03/2025 on the accounts belonging to the Foundation the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, we did not record influence from state organs and institutions in the amount of over PLN 100,000”.
Owsiak also informed about this on his Facebook profile. At the same time, the Foundation gave PAP a scan of this document.
Owsiak: We offered our money from our account
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity was involved in helping flood victims from the first days of the flood in September 2024. At the beginning of these activities, Owsiak announced that the Foundation launches its funds in the amount of PLN 40 million for the purchase of necessities in connection with floods in south of Poland. At a briefing with the participation of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, he announced that a collection account was created aimed at additional support.
In January, in a statement, Owsiak emphasized that PLN 40 million was a foundation offer. – At the time when the flood started, we immediately offered our money from our account. It was not a collection money – he said. He added that the Foundation spent over PLN 39 million 361 thousand zlotys for this purpose – of which just over PLN 32 million is money from the collection.
At the end of November, the help organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, Aid, turned to the Five PiS MPs Foundation: Katarzyna Czochara, Zbigniew Bogucki, Janusz Kowalski, Ireneusz Zyska and Paweł Hreniak. As part of access to public information, they wanted to know the costs of organizing aid campaign incurred by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, a list of donors and places to which gifts were directed.
The document was sent to MPs, and the list of all expenses and actions taken by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity for flood victims was published on the Foundation's website. We read in it that the donations for the indicated purpose were given, among others Three State Treasury Companies: the Orlen Foundation (PLN 4.2 million), PZU Foundation (PLN 2.5 million) and the Bank Pekao SA Foundation (PLN 1 million). The collection has been settled and the report is available on the Public Collection Portal Of the Ministry of Interior and Administration.
Jurek OwsiakTvn24
Summing up actions at the end of February this year. The head of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity announced that the foundation for purposes related to the help of flood victims spent a total of 47 million 205 thousand. PLN 458 and 28 gr.
She bought for the funds collected, among others 190 AED defibrillators, 188 Medical Rescue Sets R1, 136 slurry pumps and 522 sets of overalls that went to the water volunteer emergency service and the Volunteer Fire Brigade. In the near future, the Foundation plans to buy power generators and motor pumps for dirty water.
Source of the main photo: PAP/Albert Zawada