PM calls security meeting over fake emergency calls targeting opposition and president’s family

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.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has chaired a meeting of the security services to discuss an ongoing spate of fake alarm calls that have resulted in police and firefighters being sent to addresses associated with individuals and media outlets opposed to his government.

In the latest incident, officers were called out to an apartment belonging to the mother of opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki following a false report of a fire and medical emergency there.

The opposition have criticised the government for failing to clamp down on the fake calls and for allowing emergency services to continue entering properties based on them. However, the authorities insist that officers are obliged to treat such calls as if they were genuine.

On Saturday, the fire service reported that it had been called out to an apartment after “receiving a text message indicating a possible fire” and a “threat to the lives of those inside”, followed by another report of someone suffering a cardiac arrest.

Firefighters were dispatched to the scene and, after conducting reconnaissance, decided to forcibly enter the apartment. A search of the property revealed it to be empty, with no fire threat or injured persons.

Presidential spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz later confirmed that the apartment belonged to Nawrocki’s mother.

He noted that, in recent weeks, “the emergency services have been paralysed by false reports targeting journalists and public figures associated with the right wing” and said that “those in power have been unable to respond appropriately”.

Among the prime targets of the campaign of false emergency reports has been Republika, a leading conservative TV station.

Earlier this month, police arrived at the home of the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief, Tomasz Sakiewicz, after receiving a report about an alleged threat to the life of a minor. During the intervention, video of which was posted online, officers briefly handcuffed Sakiewicz’s assistant, saying she had refused to identify herself.

Police later detained a 53-year-old man in connection with the incident, but ended up releasing him after saying that he himself had likely fallen victim to “unauthorised use of [his] personal data and access to the email he uses”.

Last week, a spokesman for the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party, reported that police had arrived at the home of party leader Jarosław Kaczyński after receiving a false report of explosive devices being planted in his garden.

In response to Saturday’s incident at Nawrocki’s mother’s apartment, Tusk confirmed that it had been “another telephone provocation” and said he had “conveyed words of solidarity to the president”, who is normally a bitter political rival.

On Sunday, Tusk called a meeting of ministers and officials responsible for leading the security and emergency services to discuss the recent spate of false calls. He demanded action to “identify those responsible” and “bring them into custody as soon as possible”.

However, the prime minister also noted that, when they receive a notification, the emergency services must “react immediately and do not have the time or tools to assess at a given moment whether the alarm is false”.

But right-wing figures have argued that the authorities are not doing enough to tackle the issue.

Nawrocki’s chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, said that the latest incident was “the clearest proof of the total disgrace of those in power”, calling them “amateurs who jeopardise our security and the dignity of the Polish state”.

Kaczyński went even further, suggesting that the ruling camp could be behind the false calls.

“Whenever the ground starts slipping from under their feet, they resort to the same old tactics: provocations and insinuations aimed at intimidating their political opponents and their families,” he wrote. “They’re constantly testing how far they can push things…This government is evil in its purest form!”

However, in a social media post, interior minister Marcin Kierwiński accused PiS politicians of “deliberately spreading disinformation”.

He told broadcaster TVN that the police are conducting a “very intensive investigation” into the recent spate of false emergency calls and expressed confidence that it would “quickly yield results”.

Speaking separately to Polsat News on Sunday, his deputy minister, Czesław Mroczek, declared that “within a few days we will be reported on the results of the police’s work” and pledged that “the perpetrators will not go unpunished”.

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: KPMR/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.