Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has gone on the record questioning the result of the presidential elections and threatened that prosecutors may be used in any recount.
The opposition Conservative (PiS) backed Karol Nawrocki won the second round of the presidential election run-off on June 1 polling 51 per cent to 49 per cent (10.7 million versus 10.3 million votes) over the Tusk government backed Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
The result has been certified by Poland’s State election regulator (PKW) but numerous protests have been filed with the Supreme Court claiming errors in the counting of votes. Roman Giertych MP, a close ally and family attorney for Tusk, has also alleged electoral fraud.
In a social media post on X on June 21, Tusk challenged Nawrocki, the PiS aligned president Andrzej duda and PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński asking: “Aren’t you interested what the real result of this election was?”
He then taunted his rivals saying: “As we know honest people have nothing to fear,” which was an allusion to allegations that he was looking to prosecute his political rivals.
On June 20, Tusk declared that “people have a right to see all their protests are handled in a transparent manner”. He also warned that, although the government “cannot tell either the courts nor the Speaker of Parliament what to do”, the administration did have power over prosecutors “who will be engaged in checking for electoral fraud”.
Tusk also appealed to Duda to rescind the President’s earlier veto over legislation to change the make-up of the judges who will make the final decision on the validation of the election result.
“We have a problem with the validation of the presidential election result and the only way of dealing with it which will be acceptable to everyone will be to have those judges of the Supreme Court who are recognised by everyone in Poland and abroad to rule on the matter”, Tusk said.
“That is why I appeal to the president to withdraw his veto to the legislation which was passed by parliament to ensure that the Supreme Court can proceed in a way which will be accepted by everyone.”
Tusk was referring to legislation passed by the ruling majority in parliament removing the power to validate the presidential election from the Supervisory Chamber, whose members were appointed during the lifetime of the last PiS government.
The legitimacy of the Supervisory Chamber of the Supreme Court was challenged by both European courts and the Tusk government. That was because the members of the Chamber were appointed on recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary, a body appointed by the Polish parliament rather than, as before, by judges themselves.
The Supervisory Chamber validated the parliamentary election of 2023 as well as the local government and European parliamentary elections of 2024. Now, though, the justice minister Adam Bodnar has stated that the Supervisory Chamber was illegitimate in the eyes of both European courts and under the Polish Constitution.
The Chamber has until July 2 to consider the protests about the election and has already ordered recounts in 13 out of the 32,000 polling stations. The Trzaskowski campaign has demanded that there be a full recount of all votes.
Giertych has suggested that if Duda did not allow the protests to be considered by “legitimate judges” Nawrocki should not be allowed to take the oath of office on August 6. In addition, he said in a period of 30 days parliament and its Speaker Szymon Hołownia should ensure a constitutional reset takes place so the election protests can be considered and, eventually, the election result validated.
However, Hołownia on June 20 said that “unless I have the Supreme Court actually invalidating the result I will call a meeting of the National Assembly for August 6” when Nawrocki will take his oath of office as president. Some constitutionalists have argued that, in the event of a new president failing to be sworn in it, would be Duda who would continue to be President.
The PiS has accused Tusk and his allies of undermining both the process of democracy and “attempting to delegitimise the new president” both at home and abroad. The opposition warned that there would be mass resistance to any attempt to overturn the election result or to prevent Nawrocki from assuming the office in August.
President Duda also took Tusk to task: “You are just stomping your feet in anger. You have control of the state apparatus, detailed opinion research. All cheats? All liars?” he wrote on social media on June 21.
“Your own people couldn’t count the votes properly? No prime minister. I do not have to be interested in the result of the election as I already know it, as do all Poles and politicians from around the world who have congratulated president-elect Nawrocki.”
