Poland’s Conservative (PiS) opposition party has suspended two of its politicians over the alleged 2023 sale of public land intended for the Central Airport to a private investor for €5 million.
MPs Robert Telus, then-agriculture minister, and his deputy Rafał Romanowski, were suspended from the PiS yesterday pending the investigation of the sale of the land they were responsible for supervising, which is located between Warsaw and the city of Łódź.
It is alleged the land in question, now valued at around €90 million, was sold to a private investor who allegedly is connected to the current ruling Civic Coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The planned “mega-airport” and transport hub was a flagship project of the then-PiS government, which lost power at the end of 2023 after eight years.
At the time, it was opposed by Tusk’s party in opposition, although his government is now continuing the development.
A major element of the plan is a series of high-speed rail lines that will run across Poland, centred around the planned airport.
Part of the rail route runs through a plot of what was State-owned agricultural land that was allegedly sold to Piotr Wielgomas, the CEO of family food company Dawtona, on December 1, 2023, just a couple of weeks before the PiS left office.
Telus, while still a minister, reportedly twice visited Dawtona before the sale but it was his deputy Rafał Romanowski who allegedly signed off on it. The land had belonged to the National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR), a State agency operating under the authority of the agriculture ministry.
The sale took place place despite objections of the management of the central airport project, who reportedly told KOWR that the plot had key strategic value and that its value would significantly increase.
Telus denied to media that he had ever discussed the sale of the land with Dawtona, while Dawtona has denied any knowledge of the precise plans for the Central Airport.
The former agriculture minister also denied any knowledge of the land being sold.
“I didn’t make this decision, nor do I fully understand what’s going on. It’s hard for me to say anything more, as I only learned about this from the media,” he claimed.
Tusk called the incident a “scam” and revealed that the case had “been with the prosecutor’s office for months”.
PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek announced yesterday that both Telus and Romanowski were suspended, “until the matter of the sale of the plot belonging to KOWR is clarified”.
PiS allied-Polish President Karol Nawrocki, speaking on government controlled Radio Trojka today, praised the party for acting quickly to suspend the two MPs.
“The matter must be investigated thoroughly but PiS has signalled that it will not tolerate corruption and that as soon as there are doubts about public officials they are suspended,” he said.
Bochenek also cast doubt on the government, which has failed to trigger regulations to allow KOWR to recover the land. He queried whether that may be because the company that allegedly purchased the land was run by Tusk sympathisers.
“Could this be due to the fact that the family of the buyer of the plot is a significant sponsor of party initiatives and campaigns of the Civic Coalition?” he asked.
Portal Wirtualna Polska has reported that, since the change of government in 2023, members of the Wielgomas family became supporters of the new administration. As part of that, they reportedly donated €30,000 Euro to the party’s presidential election campaign.
The Tusk government claims it has attempted to take the land back into public ownership after it realised what had happened in an audit in 2024. Public prosecutors have now stepped in as large-scale losses of public money may be involved.
KOWR has denied there was any clause in the contract for the sale of the disputed land for its automatic re-purchasing.
There is, though, a procedure for compulsory purchase of land required for major public investment projects but that would still mean the State having to pay at or near market rates for the disputed plot.
