Poland’s State election regulator (PKW) has refused to accept the right-wing Confederation party’s financial report for the European Parliament elections of 2024.
That has meant the party now faced the loss of its state funding. The move came just months after the government blocked a court order to restore funding for the main opposition Conservatives (PIS).
The PKW justified its decision of March 17 by claiming to have found “irregularities” in the financial report of the Confederation’s EP election campaign. It also said the party had been late in submitting the document.
The election regulator claimed the Confederation party had received money from one individual after the election had taken place, had failed to account properly for spending on banners and that it had spent some money on alcohol.
Confederation has admitted that it submitted the report late but claimed that was due to technical issues with the online system.
In a statement issued to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Confederation said it “considers the decision of the PKW to be unfair and surprising”.
“We will appeal against it to the Supreme Court.”
Should that appeal fail, the party stood to lose just over €6 million during the current parliamentary four-year term, which would impact its ability to fund its Polish presidential campaign for the election due on May 18.
Even if the party won the appeal in the Supreme Court, it was likely to face the same problem as the PiS. It made a successful challenge against a PKW decision to deprive it of funds, only for the government to ignore that court ruling. That was on the grounds that the part of the Supreme Court that made the decision had been, in the Prime Minister Donald Tusk government’s view, illegitimately appointed during the lifetime of the previous PiS administration.
As a result of the government’s move, the PiS have lost around €25 million in State funding for having been accused of illicit public funding of its 2023 parliamentary election campaign.
According to Polish law, the PKW signs off financial reports of all parties and those that managed to cross the threshold of 3 per cent of support in elections received State grants and subsidies to fund their activities.
Confederation polled 12 per cent in the EP elections and had elected six MEPs. This year, support for it in the opinion polls has surged, taking it close to 20 per cent. The party’s presidential candidate is currently running neck-and -neck with the PiS’s nominee for the presidential election.
If that election goes ahead without the two opposition parties having their state funding available, despite court orders for their payment, if defeated they would likely challenge the results.
Any such challenge would have to be considered by the Supreme Court, whose authority for deciding upon such a challenge is not recognised by Tusk’s centre-left government.
