Pressure mounts around the National Electoral Commission over PiS funding reports
Jan Grabiec, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, urged the National Electoral Commission to reject PiS’s financial report. He argued that any other outcome would be hard to justify given what he described as an unprecedented scale of electoral rule violations in recent campaigns.
The commission will revisit the financial disclosures submitted by electoral bodies tied to last year’s parliamentary elections. Government officials anticipate a rejection of the PiS election committee’s report, which would reduce the party’s access to subsidies by as much as 75 percent from state budget allocations and entity subsidies.
Grabbing that a favorable finding by the commission would be inexplicable, Grabiec asserted that violations of electoral rules of such a magnitude had never occurred before. He warned that retaining the current subsidy would undermine the integrity of Poland’s electoral system and urged the PKW to act decisively.
— Grabiec spoke on TVP Info.
Pressure on the National Electoral Commission
The Prime Minister’s Office supplied the commission with notes about reports sent to the prosecutor’s office concerning irregularities in PiS campaign financing. In illustrating the evidence, Grabiec cited an example from a military-style gathering covered by the Election Observatory, which he claimed was used to promote political activity.
A recent appearance by Jarosław Kaczyński, the PiS president, on a platform in which he spoke for about twenty minutes praising party policies and labeling the opposition as traitors, was described by Grabiec as a staged moment with soldiers acting as a backdrop for the event. He pointed to a short video showing Kaczyński urging support for PiS in upcoming elections.
Grabiec noted that such performances suggest that if political actors can mobilize at a military-themed event, a wide range of political possibilities could emerge. He stressed that dozens of similar pieces of evidence exist and that a single clear finding could push the commission to reject the PiS reports.
He recalled past instances when subsidies were withdrawn from parties for formal oversight issues, naming examples like Nowoczesna and PSL, to illustrate that the commission has acted on supervisory concerns before.
Kaczyński described the expected commission meeting as a stress test for Polish democracy. He argued that a decision to withdraw PiS subsidies would signal the end of democratic viability in Poland, while noting there were no current grounds to reject the PiS report but suggesting there is political will driven by a sense of coalition weakness.
Discussion on subsidies
The commission has the option to accept the funding report from polling stations with notes about minor deficiencies or to reject it entirely. Officials have voiced concerns about expenditures from the Justice Fund, the use of public assets, the financing of political commercials, and the acceptance of improper financial contributions.
A rejection of the PiS report could lead to PiS receiving up to 75 percent of the roughly 26 million PLN annual subsidy. According to the commission’s calculations, the annual subsidy for PiS is expected to be about 25.93 million PLN.
The head of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery acts as a supervisory figure over the commission and has influence on recommendations regarding electoral subsidies for PiS. Observers note that some political factions inside the Civic Coalition oppose the party, sparking discussions about the methods used to challenge political competition rather than engage in policy-based debate.
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MD/PAP
Source: wPolityce