Man charged in Poland with insulting president with Shrek meme

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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.

A local politician in Poland has been charged with insulting the president – a crime that carries up to three years in prison – for sharing an image on social media that prosecutors believe likened President Karol Nawrocki to the animated ogre Shrek.

However, the suspect in the case, Wojciech Ślusarczyk, denies that his post referred to Nawrocki. He also argues that it would, in any case, not be insulting to be compared to Shrek, who is a positive character.

The case began in August last year, when Ślusarczyk, who sits on the council of Radomsko county in central Poland and represents the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), shared a meme (shown above) on his personal Facebook profile.

The image depicted an animated version of Nawrocki’s wife, Marta Nawrocka, dressed up in the style of a historical royal. The picture was at the time being shared widely on social media by supporters of Nawrocki.

But when he posted it, Ślusarczyk added the question “And where’s Shrek?”, in an apparent suggestion that Nawrocka looked like Shrek’s partner, Princess Fiona.

A local newspaper, Gazeta Radomszczańska, noted at the time that Ślusarczyk’s post had caused controversy and that, soon after, a member of OdNowa, a conservative political association led by Law and Justice (PiS) MP Marcin Ociepa, had submitted a notification to prosecutors.

PSL is a member of Poland’s ruling coalition, while the national-conservative PiS is the main opposition party. Nawrocki is aligned with the opposition and was elected as president last year with the support of PiS.

On Wednesday this week, Gazeta Radomszczańska reported that prosecutors last month charged Ślusarczyk with the crime of insulting the president.

The newspaper said the decision had been made after prosecutors hired an expert in linguistics, at a cost of over 5,000 zloty (€1,166), “to answer the question of whether the word ‘Shrek’ can be considered an insult to the president”.

Ślusarczyk is additionally charged with criminal insult of Marta Nawrocka (as a natural person, not a public official) through use of mass media, a separate crime that is punishable with up to one year in prison.

Subsequently, broadcaster TVN reported that, since being charged, Ślusarczyk has now been indicted, meaning he will stand trial.

They quoted the indictment as saying that the suspect had “insulted by intentionally posting content that, in the context of a questioning form of expression combined with the sharing of a graphic, was deemed to devalue the president of Poland and his wife”.

Speaking to Gazeta Radomszczańska, Ślusarczyk’s lawyer, Michał Spólnicki, said that the charges had “no substantive justification” and that his client’s post “was directed at the authors of the image, not Marta Nawrocka or President Nawrocki”.

Positing on social media on Thursday, Ślusarczyk himself argued that, in any case, Shrek is actually a character with positive traits. “I really like Shrek. [He is] a pleasant creature,” wrote the councillor.

Ślusarczyk noted that the linguistic expert hired by prosecutors appeared to agree with him. In a 72-page opinion, she had found that Shrek is associated with “honesty, loyalty, hidden sensitivity, rebellion and authenticity” and “is used in Polish schools to teach tolerance, acceptance and critical thinking”.

The councillor then finished his post by asking: “Does the Polish prosecutor’s office really have nothing better to do than deal with this type of nonsense?”

Under article 135 of Poland’s criminal code, it is a crime to “publicly insult the president of Poland”, punishable by imprisonment of up to three years. The law has been invoked a number of times in recent years.

In June 2021, three high-school students were sentenced to community service for destroying one of the election posters of then-President Andrzej Duda and shouting “Fuck Duda” at a party.

The same month, an evangelical pastor was found guilty of insulting the president for calling him, among other things, a “traitor”, “coward” and “agent” working on behalf “of Moscow and Berlin”. In 2020, a man was sentenced to community service for drawing a penis on one of Duda’s election posters while drunk.

However, in 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that a well-known writer, Jakub Żulczyk, was not guilty of insulting the president for calling Duda a “moron” in a Facebook post.

Poland has a wide range of so-called “insult laws”. It is also illegal, among other things, to insult the Polish nation or state (punishable by up to three years in prison), state emblems (up to one year), and even monuments (community service), as well as to offend religious feelings (up to two years).

Human rights groups have often criticised such laws as a threat to free speech, and warned that they can be used for political purposes.

Speaking to Gazeta Radomszczańska, Konrad Siemaszko from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, a Warsaw-based NGO, said that the case against Ślusarczyk is “absurd”.

“I don’t see any insult in this graphic at all. Insult is behaviour expressing contempt in an offensive form, and I don’t see any such behaviour here. Not to mention issues like protecting freedom of speech or satire,” said Siemaszko.

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: Grzegorz Jakubowski/KPRP

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.