Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of Poland’s ruling party, has donated 50,000 zloty (€10,621) to Ukraine’s armed forces in order to settle a defamation case with a leading Polish opposition figure, Radosław Sikorski.
Last month, a court in Poland ordered Kaczyński to pay 700,000 zloty (€148,699) towards the costs of publishing an apology he was obliged to make to Sikorski for accusing him of “diplomatic treason” when Sikorski was serving as foreign minister.
Jarosław Kaczyński has been ordered to pay 700,000 zl (€150,000) to publish an apology to ex-foreign minister @sikorskiradek.
Kaczyński has yet to comply with a 2020 order to apologise for accusing Sikorski of "treason" in relation to the Smolensk crash https://t.co/o0XkTWFgDR
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 3, 2022
In the wake of that ruling, Kaczyński declared that he would be forced to sell his house in order to meet the costs. “I don’t even know if that will be enough because I [only] own a third of the house I live in,” he told Gazeta Polska.
That prompted Sikorski to take pity on Kaczyński, a former ally but now bitter rival. “I believe that penalties for defamation should be severe but not devastating,” tweeted Sikorski.
“If Kaczynski pays 50,000 zloty to the armed forces of Ukraine, I will refrain from demanding an apology for calling me a diplomatic traitor,” he declared.
Uważam, że kary za zniesławienie powinny być dotkliwe ale nie rujnujące.
Jeśli Kaczyński wpłaci 50,000 złotych na siły zbrojne Ukrainy to odstąpię od domagania się przeprosin za nazwanie mnie zdrajcą dyplomatycznym. https://t.co/ilbVYIR1EI— Radosław Sikorski MEP 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) December 21, 2022
Today, Kaczyński’s lawyer, Adrian Salus, informed the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that his client had transferred the funds to Ukraine’s central bank.
The secretary general of Kaczyński’s Law and Justice (PiS) party, Krzysztof Sobolewski, later published a scan of the transfer order, which specified that it was “for the armed forces of Ukraine”.
In response, Sikorski also took to Twitter to confirm that he had “accepted Jarosław Kaczyński’s apology for calling me a ‘diplomatic traitor’ in the form of a payment for the armed forces of Ukraine fighting to defend all of Europe. I’m glad we found a patriotic solution”.
Oświadczenie #PJK: Dzisiaj Ukraina walczy o swoją niepodległość i wolność, ale również o nasze bezpieczeństwo. Wspieramy ją i będziemy wspierać. Skoro wpłata na fundusz wsparcia Sił Zbrojnych Ukrainy zamyka mój kontrowersyjny spór z @sikorskiradek, czynię to z satysfakcją. #EOT pic.twitter.com/kuvfAkwecw
— Krzysztof Sobolewski 🇵🇱100PL🇵🇱 (@AC_Sobol) January 31, 2023
“Ukraine is fighting for its independence and freedom, but also for our security,” Kaczyński told PAP. “We are supporting it and will support it. Since the payment to support the fund for the Ukrainian armed forces closes my controversial dispute with Radosław Sikorski, I do it with satisfaction.”
Poland’s PiS-led government has been among the strongest international supporters of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, providing military, humanitarian and diplomatic support, as well as continuing to host around one million Ukrainian refugees.
In March last year, Kaczyński joined the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia as the first group of foreign leaders to visit Kyiv since the start of Russia’s invasion less than three weeks earlier.
Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
