Polish prosecution seeks to charge former PM Morawiecki

WARSAW — Poland’s Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar on Thursday requested that former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki be stripped of his parliamentary immunity for abusing his powers by trying to organize an election during the pandemic.

Morawiecki served as PM for the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party from 2017 to 2023.

Polish members of parliament are protected by immunity, which has to be lifted by the legislature before they can be charged.

The prosecution alleges that Morawiecki illegally tried to organize a mail-in presidential election in the spring of 2020 during the pandemic. He demanded that the post office and the state security printer prepare ballots although no law existed to allow such a request, costing the government more than 56 million złoty (€13 million).

Prosecutors also argued that Morawiecki breached the electoral code and bypassed the State Electoral Commission and National Electoral Office, the only authorities tasked with organizing elections.

If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

The effort to hold a postal ballot was eventually dropped and the country held an in-person vote a couple of months later, which was narrowly won by pro-PiS incumbent Andrzej Duda.

However, the road to trying Morawiecki — who recently became the leader of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists — remains bumpy, Bodnar admitted.

“Prosecution can only proceed after notifying the suspect, gathering evidence, lifting parliamentary immunity, presenting charges, and finally preparing the indictment,” he wrote on X.

Morawiecki insisted he did nothing wrong and that the prosecution is politically motivated.

“The economy is sinking into ever deeper trouble … yet they are focused on persecuting the opposition. I can say this: Go ahead, lift [the immunity] and prosecute. Personally, I am more than willing to waive my immunity,” the former PM told Poland’s right-wing TV Republika.

The prosecution was hailed by government supporters.

“There are no sacred cows,” Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on X, adding: “No one, not even the prime minister, and especially the prime minister, can undertake illegal actions!”

The ruling majority has enough votes in parliament to lift Morawiecki’s immunity, but it’s not clear when such a vote would take place.

The prosecution is also working in other cases involving PiS officials who served in the Law and Justice government that held power from 2015 to the end of 2023.

In the document requesting the lifting of Morawiecki’s immunity, prosecutors also mention eight other senior PiS politicians, including party leader Jarosław Kaczyński.

Former Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski, who was stripped of his immunity last year, fled Poland for Hungary, where he was granted political asylum.