A Ukrainian beautician has been working for Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his party, Civic Platform (PO), while being a member of an organisation that successfully lobbied for reducing VAT for beauty salons.
The PO included cutting the tax for such establishments as one of its 100 election pledges. After it took up the reins of government last year, that relief was introduced from April 1, with VAT on cosmetic services dropping from 23 per cent to 8 per cent, according to online site VATCalc.
At the same time the government raised VAT on food from zero to 5 per cent.
The woman in question is Kristina Voronovska, it was reported on July 25, who is some 30 years younger than Tusk. She has worked in Poland as a qualified beautician and has a Instagram account #Ukrainiangirl.
She was born in Poland in 1989, near a military base where her Soviet soldier father was deployed, but went to school in Russia.
Voronovska later moved to Ukraine where she studied economics and worked in the financial sector.
Wiedzieliście, że D.Tusk zgłosił w Sejmie, że ma 2 asystentki?
Jedną z nich jest Kristina Voronovska określająca się na IG jako #ukrainiangirl
Panie Premierze, czy częste wizyty Kristiny w Sopocie uwieczniane na IG pomogły w skutecznym aplikowaniu na to stanowisko? pic.twitter.com/e5aEyW1W29
— hipopokryzja (@hipopokryzja) July 24, 2024
The government said she was granted security clearance despite the fact that she has relatives who live in Russia.
Jan Grabiec MP, the Tusk government’s spokesman, told news portal wP.pl: “Kristina has worked for us in the PO since 2022. She was hired to a secretarial position when we were expanding our offices before the election campaign.
“She arrived in Poland in 2018, looked for work in the banking sectors but in the end ended up working in a beauty salon.
“She applied through a routine open recruitment process and was hired because she spoke good Polish and had Polish roots,” the spokesman said.
Grabiec praised her work and revealed that “after being a valued staff member she was recommended to manage Donald Tusk’s parliamentary office”.
Asked about her family connections in Russia, Grabiec said that she has distant relatives in the country with whom she “does not maintain contact”.
He went on to say: “Like every other person who works close to the PM she has received security clearance,” adding that “she has no access to any security documentation” as she was working on constituency matters.
He did not comment on questions being asked by opposition MPs about Voronovska potentially having a direct interest in the decision to lower VAT on services delivered in beauty salons.
Opposition Conservative PiS MP Radosław Fogiel said on X: “And now it gets interesting. Tusk’s assistant is a member of an organisation which campaigned for lower VAT rates for the beauty industry.
“And it just so happens that it became one of the few realized election promises. Rather than being on Tusk’s payroll should she not have been placed in the register of lobbyists?”
Voronovska’s membership of the commercial online platform Beauty Razem has been confirmed on social media by Michał Lenczyński, a representative of the organisation.
Pani Kristina jest Członkinią @BeautyRazem od ponad 4 lat. Jest człowiekiem wykształconym, pracowitym i uczciwym. Branża Beauty całym sercem wspiera ją w zawodowych i osobistych dążeniach. Trzymamy kciuki za owocną współpracę z Panem Premierem. ❤️
— Michał Łenczyński 💯 𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝔂 𝓡𝓪𝔃𝓮𝓶 (@BeautyMichal) July 24, 2024
“Kristina has been a Member @BeautyRazem for over four years. She is an educated, hard-working and honest person. The beauty industry wholeheartedly supports her in her professional and personal endeavors. We keep our fingers crossed for fruitful co-operation with the Prime Minister,“ Lenczyński said.
