Prosecutors open investigation into Polish opposition leader Tusk

Prosecutors in Warsaw have opened an investigation into whether Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland’s main opposition party, abused his powers when previously serving as prime minister. The crime carries a potential prison sentence of up to ten years.

The decision came in response to a request from Marek Falenta, a businessman who was responsible for making secret recordings of leading politicians that helped bring down the government of Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) party in 2015.

Falenta alleges that Tusk abused his powers to order an inspection of the company, Składy Węgla, that he ran and which was involved in importing Russian coal to Poland.

In a letter dated 11 April 2023 but first reported yesterday by state broadcaster TVP, prosecutors confirmed they had opened an investigation into whether Tusk abused his powers at an as-yet-undetermined date in the first half of 2014.

The alleged crime consisted of “ordering without legal basis an inspection of the firm Składy Węgla with the aim of forcing the cessation of coal imports from the Russian Federation and thus acting to the detriment of the company’s private interests”, read the prosecutors’ letter.

In a separate case, Falenta last November filed a defamation claim against Tusk. He said the PO leader “formulated false and unsubstantiated claims” by suggesting Falenta had cooperated with the Russian security services, including selling them the secret recordings.

That came in response to Tusk saying, the previous month, that it had been in Moscow’s interests for his PO government to be replaced because he had proposed setting up an “energy union” to make the EU independent of Russian supplies.

He claimed that there was “Russian interest in Mr Falenta” and that the secret recordings were revealed just after Tusk had ordered an inspection of Falenta’s company. “The recordings were sold to the Russian services by Mr Falenta,” said Tusk.

Tusk also suggested that Polish anti-corruption officers “loyal to PiS” – the Law and Justice party then in opposition but which took power from PO in 2015 and remains in office – had been “involved in the operation” and “were promoted after PiS took power”.

The PO leader called for an independent inquiry to ascertain “the relationship between the Russian services, PiS politicians and swindlers who made money from importing Russian coal”. Then “no one can speculate” that PiS “was in fact installed [in power] by the Russian services”.

The claims were immediately rejected by PiS, which takes a strongly anti-Russian line and has itself accused Tusk and PO of being too friendly towards – and even collaborating with – Russia. The PiS government in 2020 ordered state firms to stop importing Russian coal and last year also banned private businesses from doing so.

Soon after Tusk’s calls for an investigation, the justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, released testimony from an associate of Falenta that claimed Tusk’s son has collected a €600,000 bribe. Michał Tusk denies the claim. Ziobro, in his other role as public prosecutor general, also oversees Poland’s prosecutorial service.

In response to yesterday’s news that Tusk is under investigation, a senior PO figure, Sławomir Nitras, told Radio Zet that if Ziobro “is trying to prosecute Donald Tusk for fighting Falenta and the Russian coal trade, then it…[indicates] Ziobro and his gang are pursuing Moscow’s interests”.

Falenta’s secret recordings, made at Warsaw restaurants, featured conversations between prominent public figures, including government officials and business leaders. The publication of their contents, which began in 2014, prompted the resignation in 2015 of three government ministers and the speaker of parliament.

Later that year, the PO-led government was ousted after two terms in office and replaced by a new PiS administration. Falenta was sentenced to two-and-a-half years of imprisonment in 2016 for making the recordings, though he went on the run and evaded jail until 2019.

“Falenta helped PiS return to power, and today PiS repays it and uses him to prosecute Tusk,” claimed Nitras yesterday. Tusk himself has not yet commented on news of the investigation.

Main image credit: European People’s Party/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

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.