Brussels moves tab against the new Polish law that intends to investigate Russian influence in his country before 2022, the so-called Tusk law, a controversial initiative that he suspects can be used by the Government to silence the opposition a few months before the elections and that this Sunday brought several hundred thousand people to the streets to protest.
The announcement made on Friday by President Andrzej Duda, shortly after signing the law, of various amendments to soften its content has not reassured the European Commission, which yesterday agreed to open an infringement file with the Polish government and ask it to review this legislation. , which he considers contrary to the rule of law.
The law provides for the setting up of a state commission made up of nine people elected by Parliament and which will be in charge of examining Russian influence in Polish governments between 2007 and 2022. This body enjoys broad investigative and punitive powers, by being able to impose administrative sanctions and even disqualify the defendants from holding public office for up to ten years.
For the European Union and the United States, the lack of guarantees in the new Polish law could lead to its being used to “interfere” in next autumn’s elections, which are more complicated than ever for the ultra-conservative Government of Law and Justice ( PiS), in power for eight years. Specifically, it is suspected that this commission could use its broad powers to remove from the electoral race the former prime minister and former president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, leader of the liberal conservative Civic Platform party.
PiS accuses the Tusk governments of being too soft on Moscow and allowing Poland to become too dependent on Russia by increasing purchases of Russian gas and not opposing the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. the war in Ukraine, the vice prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, claimed to investigate the actions of previous governments, and that is what the new law will allow to do.
The constitutional fit of the commission of inquiry is, according to the academics, highly doubtful, since it allows punishing actions that, in their day, did not constitute any illegality. The opposition has described the law as “Stalinistâ€.
Brussels warned Warsaw that it would not sit idly by before a law that prevents citizens from accessing justice, but its processing went ahead. Criticism from the United States, however, led Duda to back down and submit to the Polish Parliament several urgent amendments to, for example, veto the presence of parliamentarians on the commission, remove the right to disqualify defendants and expand the right of resource. With the opening of the file, Brussels claims its role in bringing the law closer to community law.
