The conservative opposition in Poland has a raft of new criticisms about Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s center-left government. These center on alleged misappropriation of EU funds from a COVID-19 recovery fund, which was put in place to help small businesses in the hotel and restaurant industry after the pandemic.
Politicians from Poland’s largest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), have been complaining about this for around two weeks now. “A gigantic scandal,” PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski wrote on the social media platform X.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has launched an investigation.
Poland qualified for 255.8 billion zlotys (€59.8 billion or $70 billion) from the EU’s Reconstruction and Resilience Fund. The sum comprises grants amounting to €25.3 billion and low-interest loans amounting to €34.5 billion.
The supposedly misappropriated funds are only a fraction of the overall amount, about 1.2 billion zlotys, of which 110 million have been allocated so far. These funds were intended to make small businesses in the hotel and restaurant industry, which suffered during the pandemic, more resilient in the face of possible future epidemics or crises.
EU funds for a swinger club?
However, according to media outlets associated with the PiS, the funds have been used to finance sailing boats, saunas, solariums, to buy new furniture or set up virtual shooting ranges and for online bridge courses. A swingers’ club was allegedly funded.
“Instead of an economic stimulus, a gigantic scandal: yachts, tanning salons, outdoor parties, mobile coffee machines,” Kaczynski complained on X. “A select few received the money, but every citizen will repay the loan. The funds were supposed to go toward investment, innovation, pharmaceutical security — but now there’s no money for anything!”
Tusk under pressure
PiS politicians have called for an extraordinary public prosecutor’s office to be set up so that they can investigate the affair. Lawmaker Jacek Sasin has even filed a criminal complaint against Tusk because he “cannot pretend that he had nothing to do with it,” Sasin said.
Accusations are primarily being directed at Tusk. During the election campaign, as opposition leader, he promised to ensure Poland would receive EU funds that had been blocked by the European Commission . The block had been to sanction violations of the rule of law by the PiS government. Though his government has not been able to fully restore the rule of law in Poland, Tusk was able to obtain the money after Brussels decided to trust him.
Economic success thanks to recovery fund
The recovery funding has contributed significantly to Poland’s economic success over the past 18 months. But the weekly Polish news magazine Wprost argued in an editorial that “the scandal has ruined the image of the Tusk government.
“What was supposed to be his strength has turned out to be a millstone around his neck,” the editorial said.
Tusk has said he won’t accept “any waste” of the funds, noting that an initial investigation had not discovered any corruption or embezzlement. He said it was more likely a matter of “careless use” of the money.
Tusk also announced there would be an impact on ministerial positions, but so far, Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz, the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, remains in office. She is a co-leader of the Polska 2050 party, which is in Tusk’s coalition government, and without it, he would not have a parliamentary majority.
According to the coalition agreement, Pelczynska-Nalecz, who is set to become the deputy head of government in the fall, is reported to have known about the irregularities for months but has said that she did not want to “make a big deal” about them. Tusk has said he is “moderately satisfied” with this explanation and that his patience is “not yet exhausted.”
So far, he has not dismissed anyone over this issue, although he has been known to do so in less serious cases.
Tusk blames opposition politicians
Tusk believes that the PiS is actually responsible for the affair and has argued that the previous government gave his cabinet “very little time to allocate the funds to Polish companies.” It was to meet the deadline that Pelczynska-Nalecz’s ministry “relaxed the procedures so that people could get money,” he said.
For two years, the European Commission withheld funds for Poland due to the PiS government’s violations of the rule of law. It only released the funds after Tusk took office.
Right now, hotel and restaurant owners are likely to suffer most as Pelczynska-Nalecz suspended all subsidies until further notice. Her ministry says it will check all the contracts again to ensure that they comply with EU criteria. It also says that funds could be reclaimed if irregularities are found. So far, it has signed more than 3,000 contracts.
The program for the hotel and restaurant industry only makes up a small part of the recovery fund, though. Most of the money will be used for climate-related projects, modernizing rail transport, or allocated to energy suppliers and hospitals. Now that funds have been reallocated from an urban development program, money will also be used to support defense projects.
Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, has also expressed himself on the EU funds issue. “Poles are right to be outraged when they hear that public money is being spent on solariums, saunas and sailing boats,” he told the Polsat television station. “Of course, the current government bears responsibility.”
The right-wing historian-turned-politician has made no secret of his goal to bring down the Tusk government, preferably before the 2027 parliamentary elections.
This article was originally published in German.
