US Republican lawmakers complain to EU about “rigged” Polish elections

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A group of Republican lawmakers has written to the European Union to raise concern that “Obama, Soros, and the Globalist Left are trying to rig Poland’s presidential election” in favour of the centrist, government-aligned candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, against his conservative rival, Karol Nawrocki.

The letter, sent on Tuesday to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is signed by eight members of Congress, including Brian Mast, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

They express “profound alarm over reported developments in Poland that may undermine the integrity of the democratic process” ahead of this Sunday’s presidential election run-off between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki.

As one example, they point to a recent series of possibly foreign-funded Facebook adverts favouring Trzaskowski and attacking Nawrocki. The lawmakers cite reports that organisations behind the adverts are connected to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the US Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, they also note that Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has refused to comply with a court order requiring it to release public funds to the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is supporting Nawrocki’s campaign.

“By withholding these funds, the Tusk administration appears to be attempting to cripple PiS’s ability to compete fairly in the presidential election and violating the rule of law,” they write.

The government, however, argues that the Supreme Court chamber which issued the ruling on releasing PiS’s funds has invalid legal status because it is staffed entirely by judges appointed through a body, the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), that was rendered illegitimate by reforms introduced when PiS was in power.

In their letter, the Republicans say that the Polish government’s actions “suggest a deliberate effort to tilt the electoral playing field”. Meanwhile, the lack of action by Brussles in response “exposes a troubling double standard in the EU’s approach to Poland’s rule of law”, they add.

Whereas the European Commission withheld billions of euros in funds from Poland when PiS was in power due to alleged rule-of-law violations, “it has remained conspicuously silent despite clear evidence of rule-of-law violations under Tusk’s administration”.

The signatories end their letter by asking that the European Commission answer a series of questions relating to recent recent controversies in Poland and explaining “why the Commission [has] remained silent” on them.

The latest letter echoes one sent earlier this month to the European Commission by Republican members of the House Committee on the Judiciary expressing “deep concern” about the rule of law in Poland, in particular that the government is “weaponizing the justice system” against PiS.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday this week, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, made a speech in Poland calling on Poles to elect Nawrocki as president. Trump himself also met with Nawrocki in the White House earlier this month.

Polls suggest that Sunday’s presidential election run-off in Poland will be an extremely tight race between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki. The winner will succeed current President Andrzej Duda, who is also a PiS and Trump ally, when his second and final five-year term in office ends in August.

Since Tusk’s government – a pro-EU coalition ranging from left to centre right – took office, it has vigorously pursued legal action against PiS officials over alleged crimes committed during the former ruling party’s time in power from 2015 to 2023.

Under PiS’s rule, a wide range of legal experts, international organisations and both Polish and European courts pointed to numerous violations of the rule of law and other democratic standards by the party.

However, in its efforts to address those violations, Tusk’s administration has itself been accused of violating laws and democratic norms, in particular by PiS but also in some cases by courts and independent experts.

Last September, Tusk himself admitted that “if we want to restore the constitutional order and the foundations of liberal democracy…[we] will probably make mistakes or commit actions that, according to some legal authorities, will be inconsistent or not fully compliant with the provisions of the law”.

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.