Polish parliament passes bill to create commission investigating Russian influence

The ruling party has pushed through legislation to create a powerful new commission that would be empowered to investigate alleged Russian influence in Poland and punish those deemed to have acted in Russia’s interests, including by banning them from office.

The bill, which now passes to President Andrzej Duda for approval, has been criticised by the opposition and many experts, who argue that its real purpose is to help the ruling party win this year’s elections or, if they lose, to hinder the work of a new government afterwards.

The plans to create the commission were first approved by the government’s majority in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, in April. They then passed to the opposition-controlled upper-house Senate, which rejected them.

However, in a vote yesterday evening, the more powerful Sejm overruled the Senate’s decision and passed the legislation. President Duda, normally a government ally, can now sign the bill into law, veto it, or ask the Constitutional Tribunal to assess its constitutionality.

If approved by Duda, the law would create a commission empowered to investigate “Russian influence on the internal security of the Republic of Poland in the years 2007-2022” and punish “public officials who under Russian influence acted to the detriment of the interests of the Republic of Poland”.

Among the penalties it could issue are banning individuals from carrying out functions relating to spending public funds for up to 10 years and preventing them from receiving security clearance for the same period.

The commission would also be able to overturn administrative decisions deemed to have been made under Russian influence. And it would have wide-ranging powers to access classified materials and to order searches and seizures of evidence. Individuals who refuse to appear at its hearings could be fined up to 50,000 zloty (€11,000).

The body’s nine members would be chosen by the Sejm, where the government has a majority, and its chairperson picked by the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.

The opposition – all of whose MPs voted against the legislation yesterday – have argued that the real purpose of the commission is to target them ahead of this autumn’s elections.

Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party, believes it will be used in particular against their leader, Donald Tusk, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2014. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has often accused Tusk of acting in Russia’s interests during his time in office.

In November, when the idea of the commission was first discussed, Janusz Kowalski, an MP from the PiS caucus and a deputy minister, said he wanted it to be used to “bring the pro-Russian Tusk before the State Tribunal and then put him in prison”.

“This law represents the great cowardice of [PiS chairman Jarosław] Kaczyński, who wants to eliminate his greatest rival,” said Borys Budka, head of PO’s parliamentary caucus, during a stormy debate over the bill in the Sejm yesterday. His party have dubbed the law “Lex Tusk”.

In response, Łukasz Schreiber, a PiS MP and government minister, argued that “this is not a committee [intended] to be directed against anyone” but rather a “cry for truth” and effort to “strengthen the constitution and sovereignty”, reports Polsat News.

Speaking to broadcaster TVN, former commissioner for human rights Adam Bodnar agreed with the oppositon that the commission has a “purely political goal, related to the elections”. It is intended to “humiliate someone and then lead to them being deprived of the opportunity to participate in public life”.

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.