Polish parliament approves abolition of anti-corruption agency but presidential veto looms

Mar 13, 2026 | Law, Politics

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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.

The ruling majority in parliament has approved a law that would abolish the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), transferring its responsibilities to other agencies. The government argues that the CBA has become tainted by its politicisation under the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration.

However, the bill would still need to be signed into law by PiS-aligned President Karol Nawrocki, whose chief of staff today made clear that the president intends to veto it.

The current ruling coalition, which ranges from left to centre right, first proposed abolishing the CBA in April 2024, a few months after it had taken power from PiS.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk argued at the time that the CBA had been “practically inactive” in fighting corruption under PiS, and instead was used as a tool to pursue opponents of his administration.

However, the plans were later put on hold, and only in October 2025 did the government submit the relevant legislation to parliament. Today, the Sejm, the more powerful lower house, finally voted on the proposal.

 

The proposed law would scrap the CBA, which was founded in 2006, and transfer its responsibilities to the Internal Security Agency (ABW), the National Revenue Administration (KAS), and the police, where a new specialist unit, the Central Bureau for Combating Corruption, would be created.

Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister in charge of the security services, told parliament that the measures are necessary because “the CBA is a service that has become politicised”.

He noted that the agency’s former head, Mariusz Kamiński, and deputy, Maciej Wąsik, were convicted and jailed for abusing their powers. The pair later became ministers in the PiS government. After being sent to jail, they were pardoned of their crimes by former PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda.

Siemoniak also noted that the CBA was at the heart of a legal controversy over the purchase and use of Pegasus spyware under the PiS government, which has been accused of using the tool to surveil political opponents rather than suspected criminals.

“It is in the interest of all citizens that the fight against corruption be impartial and free from political pressure,” said Siemoniak. “We want to create a functional system in which the police can effectively combat corruption. We do not need another special service for this purpose.”

When PiS came to power in 2015, Poland had recently risen to its highest ever position of 29th in the Corruption Perceptions Index produced annually by Transparency International. However, it then fell consistently, reaching an all-time low of 53rd in 2024, the year after PiS left office.

PiS, however, says that abolishing the CBA will weaken efforts to combat corruption.

“Instead of strengthening state institutions responsible for fighting corruption, the government is dismantling them,” wrote party spokesman Piotr Müller on social media. “This is a dangerous step…[and] can only lead to serious consequences for security.”

One of the party’s MPs, Władysław Dajczak, suggested that the government was abolishing the CBA as an act of “revenge” for the agency’s actions against politicians from the ruling camp.

In a vote on the bill today in the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, a majority of 231 MPs voted in favour, all of them from Tusk’s ruling coalition.

The 180 votes against came mostly from PiS, alongside four from the small left-wing Together (Razem) party. The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), another opposition group, abstained from voting.

The legislation now passes to the upper-house Senate, which can delay it and suggest amendments, but has no power to block the law’s passage. Once approved by parliament, it moves on to the president, who can sign the bill into law, veto it, or send it to the constitutional court for assessment.

However, Nawrocki’s chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, made clear today, even before the Sejm had voted, that the president intends to veto the bill.

“I don’t know of any other government in democratic Europe that would want to liquidate an institution that fights corruption,” said Bogucki, quoted by news website Interia.

“Liquidating the CBA was your dream, but I can tell you today that this dream will be in vain. Nothing will come of it,” he told the government. “The president does not consent to this.”

When the bill was submitted to parliament last year, Siemoniak said that, if the president vetoed it, the government would in any case seek to transfer some of the CBA’s tasks to the police.


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: CBA (press materials)

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