Supreme Court clears writer of insulting Poland’s president by calling him “moron”

The Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that a writer is not guilty of insulting the president – a crime in Poland that carries a prison sentence of up to three years – for calling him a “moron”.

The case stems from a Facebook post written on 7 November 2020 by Jakub Żulczyk, in which he criticised President Andrzej Duda for his reluctance to congratulate Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election against Donald Trump, who was a close ally of Duda.

Despite Biden having been declared by US media to be the winner of the election earlier that day, Duda had tweeted to say “we await the nomination by the Electoral College”.

In response, Żulczyk, who holds a master’s degree in American studies, wrote a post that concluded by saying “Andrzej Duda is a moron [debil]” for refusing to accept the result.

Prosecutors launched an investigation after a notification of a potential crime was made by a private individual. In March 2021, they indicted Żulczyk – an author whose works include Blinded by the Lights, which was turned into a TV show by HBO – for the crime of insulting the president.

The case proceeded to trial, but in January 2022 Warsaw’s district court discontinued proceedings. The judge noted that Żulczyk’s use of the word “moron” had to be viewed in the context of his entire Facebook post and found that the “social harmfulness of the act is insignificant [and therefore] not a crime”.

Prosecutors appealed against that ruling, arguing that it was wrong to find that little social harm was caused by the entry. As evidence, they pointed to a 2019 statement issued by the Polish Language Council expressing concern at the “language of aggression” being increasingly used in the public sphere.

“We all know the meaning of the word used by the accused,” said prosecutor Marcin Przestrzelski, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza. “It is used for one specific purpose: to offend someone. Do we want such language in public debate?”

However, the appeals court disagreed and upheld Żulczyk’s acquittal. The judge noted that the word “moron” was only a “marginal” part of a longer entry outlining the author’s criticism of Duda’s position.

Prosecutors then took the final step available to them by asking the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling and order a retrial. Today, however, that request was rejected.

Supreme Court judge Kazimierz Klugiewicz found that the appeals court had properly examined the case and there were no grounds to dispute its finding that the use of “moron” caused negligible social harm, reports TVN24.

In a Facebook post today, Żulczyk expressed relief that “we can finally close the whole [case]”. He said that he had “never wanted to be a hero of the opposition or a tool in the hands of politicians from any side”.

All he had wanted to do was express his concern that Duda’s actions in refusing to accept Biden’s victory were “to the detriment of Polish-American relations, which I have always considered crucial to Poland’s prosperity and security”.

During Duda’s time in office since 2015, a number of cases have been brought against people accused of insulting him as president. In June 2021, three high-school students were sentenced to community service for destroying one of Duda’s election posters and shouting “F**k Duda” at a party.

The same month, an evangelical pastor was found guilty of insulting the president for calling him, among other things, a “traitor”, “coward” and “agent” working on behalf “of Moscow and Berlin”. In 2020, a man was sentenced to community service for drawing a penis on one of Duda’s election posters while drunk.

The law against insulting the president has also frequently been used in the past, including under the presidencies of Duda’s two most recent predecessors, Bronisław Komorowski and Lech Kaczyński.

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.