Ex security chief accuses Tusk of lying about negative vetting of opposition presidential candidate

May 28, 2025 | Law, Politics

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

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.

The former head of Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW), who led the service under the last government, has accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of lying about the fact that an ABW officer once issued a negative opinion on a property owned by opposition presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.

The current government’s security services spokesman, however, has insisted that Tusk’s remarks were accurate and that the former ABW chief overruled his subordinate’s doubts in order to issue security clearance to Nawrocki.

The latest controversy comes shortly ahead of Sunday’s presidential election run-off, in which Nawrocki, who is supported by the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, will face off against government-aligned centrist Rafał Trzaskowski.

The controversy in question emerged shortly before the first round of Poland’s presidential election, which took place on 18 May. During a televised debate, Nawrocki declared that he was “an ordinary Pole who owns one apartment”.

However, news website Onet quickly discovered that the candidate in fact also owns a second apartment. Questions and doubts subsequently emerged over how Nawrocki had come to own the property and how he had treated the elderly, disabled man living in it, from whom he had purchased it.

Nawrocki has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that he bought the apartment legally and cared for the man, named only as Jerzy Ż, who was living there. But politicians from the ruling coalition have accused him of making misleading and contradictory statements, and say that many questions remain unanswered.

 

On Tuesday, the government’s spokesman for the security services, Jacek Dobrzyński, published a statement on the issue that he said was a response to “numerous media inquiries”.

He said that, in 2021 – the year that Nawrocki was appointed to his current position as head of the state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) and when PiS was in power – the ABW “collected materials regarding the method and sources of financing the purchase of the apartment [by Nawrocki] from Jerzy Ż”.

Despite “a negative recommendation from an officer analysing the files, the then head of the ABW, Krzysztof Wacławek (currently an advisor to President [Andrzej Duda]), decided to issue a security certificate to Karol Nawrocki”, he added. Duda is a PiS ally and has endorsed Nawrocki’s presidential bid.

Shortly afterwards, Tusk issued a similar statement saying that “a Gdańsk ABW officer investigating Nawrocki’s case issued a negative opinion in 2021, but the PiS leadership of the agency did not take it into account for unknown reasons. The then head of the ABW is now an advisor to President Duda”.

In response, Wacławek issued a statement of his own declaring that, “once again, Prime Minister Donald Tusk is not telling the truth”. He noted that, first of all, Nawrocki’s vetting procedure was carried out by an ABW office in Warsaw, not Gdańsk (the city that Nawrocki is from and where the apartment is located).

“It was conducted reliably and in accordance with applicable regulations, and experts from the ABW, who have been dealing with the protection of classified information for many years, recommended issuing security clearances to Dr Karol Nawrocki with the highest level of security,” he added.

Wacławek also noted that, subsequently, an audit of ABW activities in the years 2016-2023 had taken place, which included an inspection of the security clearance issued to Nawrocki. “This audit positively assessed the conducted proceedings and did not find any irregularities.”

That prompted a further statement by Dobrzyński, who said that he stood by his earlier remarks and confirmed Tusk’s claim that “the recommendation in this proceeding was prepared on the basis of activities performed by officers of the Gdańsk branch of the ABW”.

Dobrzyński also noted that Wacławek “did not deny in his statement that he issued a security clearance contrary to a valid and negative recommendation of an officer analysing the files”.

Separately, Nawrocki has also been hit this week by another Onet report, based on testimony by unnamed former colleagues, that he helped procure prostitutes for guests at a luxury hotel when he worked there as a security guard. Nawrocki called the claims a “bunch of lies” and said he will sue Onet.

Polls suggest that Sunday’s presidential election run-off will be an extremely tight race between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki. The winner will succeed current President Duda when his second and final five-year term in office ends in August.


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: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Pin It on Pinterest

Support us!