Poland falls to lowest ever position in global corruption index

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has dropped to its lowest ever position in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). It now ranks 53rd, equal with Bahrain and Georgia, and down from its best ever position of 29th in 2015 and 2016.

Meanwhile, Poland’s score on the index fell for the sixth year in a row, reaching 53 out of 100 (where zero indicates the highest level of corruption and 100 represents the lowest).

Poland’s CPI score has been in steady decline since 2015, when it peaked at 63. That year, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power and begin eight years of rule.

In its report, Transparency International blames Poland’s decline over the last decade on PiS, pointing to the party’s “efforts…to monopolise power at the expense of public interest”.

The organisation notes that Donald Tusk’s new coalition government, which replaced PiS in late 2023, “has made the restoring of the balance of power and the rule of law among its top priorities”.

However, it warned that, “with PiS still exerting significant influence on institutions, rebuilding them while respecting democratic processes will not be an easy task”.

However, Mariusz Kamiński, a former PiS interior minister, blamed the current government for last year’s decline in the ranking, which he wrongly said was a record drop (in fact, Poland fell by more between 2016 and 2017, when PiS was in power).

“Tusk is back, and with him corruption,” wrote Kamiński, who was convicted of abuse of power in 2023, wrote on X.

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 countries and territories based on perceived public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business leaders surveyed by Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO.

Denmark topped the 2024 index with 90 points, followed by Finland (88), Singapore (84), New Zealand (83) and Luxembourg (83). The lowest-ranked nations were South Sudan (8), Somalia (9), Venezuela (10), Syria (12) and Yemen (13).

While the global average CPI score has remained steady at 43 in recent years, the average for “EU and Western Europe” – the world’s highest-scoring region – declined for the second consecutive year, falling to 64 in 2024 from 66 in 2022.

Germany (75) and France (67) saw declines of three and four points, respectively. Traditionally low-corruption Scandinavian countries also recorded drops, with Norway falling three points to 81 and Sweden two points to 80 – both historically low figures.

Of the 31 European countries classified under “EU and Western Europe,” only six improved their scores, while 19 recorded declines. Poland had the eighth-worst score in this group. Hungary came last, with a score of 41.

During PiS’s eight years in power, it undertook a series of radical reforms to Poland’s justice system that were widely viewed by expert bodies, international organisations, and the Polish public to have undermined democracy and the rule of law.

The Tusk government promised to improve the standards of the rule of law. However, its actions have also been mired in legal controversy, including a contested takeover of public media and the replacement of the national prosecutor, the appointment of judges, and efforts to prosecute former PiS ministers.

In a poll last month, more Poles said the rule of law in Poland has worsened rather than improved in the year since Tusk’s government replaced PiS.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Transparency International 

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.