Poland’s opposition Conservatives (PiS) won a Supreme Court battle against the country’s election regulatory body which reinstates the party’s state funding.
The election watchdog, the National Electoral Commission (or PKW), had rejected the party’s financial report and cut its state funding by nearly €20 million.
In August, the regulator rejected the party’s reports for the 2023 parliamentary elections, citing spending irregularities during the campaign.
The PKW’s composition changed in spring 2024, with a majority of its members now appointed by prime minister Donald Tusk’s parliamentary majority.
The PiS appealed against the watchdog’s decision to the Supreme Court, which on the December 11 ruled the election regulator had failed to substantiate its claims of irregularities in the party’s election spending.
According to Justice Aleksander Stępkowski, the PKW was now “obliged to pass a resolution accepting PiS’s financial report”.
However, PM Donald Tusk’s government also regard the Supreme Court’s supervisory chamber as illegitimate, after a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) questioned how the previous government appointed its judges.
The Tusk government and ECJ argue the previous judges were recommended by a body that was appointed under the last Conservative (PiS)-led parliament.
However, the PiS disagrees, saying the constitution does not exclude a parliamentary role in selecting members of the National Council of the Judiciary (the KRS). In any case, it says, the constitution makes Poland’s president the final arbiter on judicial appointments.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński hailed the Supreme Court’s decision but said “the question remains whether the current government will implement it or will the law be broken once again”.
The election regulator now faced a decision either to accept the court’s ruling or reject it on the grounds it does not recognise the court. The finance ministry on December 12 said it will abide by any decision the PKW took.
Politicians from the ruling coalition have described the court’s ruling as illegitimate.
“We do not recognise the Supervisory Chamber of the Supreme Court as validly constituted and therefore we cannot recognise any of its decisions,” deputy speaker of Parliament Piotr Zgorzelski from the centrist Third Way Alliance told commercial broadcaster Polsat News.
Members of Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) meanwhile described irregularities in PiS election spending as very well documented and said Conservatives should be punished for them.
At stake was PiS funding for a presidential election due in the spring 2025.
If funding continued to be blocked, the PiS will find it hard to promote Karol Nawrocki, a relatively little known candidate it has selected to contest the election.
