Polish opposition accuses EU of plan to interfere in presidential election

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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.

Opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński has accused the European Union of plotting to interfere in Poland’s upcoming presidential election after a European Commissioner announced plans to organise discussions on preventing “abuse and manipulation” of the results.

He and other figures from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party, have expressed fear that there will be a repeat of what happened recently in Romania, where presidential election results were annulled after a right-wing candidate won.

In an interview with broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Henna Virkkunen, the European Commissioner for technological sovereignty, security and democracy, was asked if Brussels has plans to specially monitor Poland’s elections in the context of the use of online platforms by the far right.

“In Poland, as in Romania and Germany [which also recently held elections], the far right is at the forefront of using VLOP [very large online platforms] mechanisms to promote its content and people,” said Deutsche Welle.

In response, Virkkunen confirmed that “we are indeed preparing – together with [national authorities]”. She noted that, “before elections we always organise a round table and analyse different scenarios with the national authorities, NGOs and the [online] platforms themselves”.

It is important that such platforms “cannot be abused or manipulated, they should have systems that prevent the spread of disinformation”, she added.

In January, for example, the European Commission held a round table in Berlin together with the German authorities and representatives of major social media platforms ahead of February’s federal elections.

In relation to Poland, Virkkunen said that such a round table “will happen in the coming weeks”, ahead of the presidential election on 18 May.

Those remarks were quickly seized upon by PiS as evidence that the European Commission wants to interfere in the election.

PiS has long claimed that the EU seeks to influence Polish politics, including by deliberately withholding billions of euros in funds from Poland in order to help remove PiS from power. The funds were unfrozen after a new, more EU-friendly government led by Donald Tusk was elected in 2023.

Many right-wing figures around Europe and in the United States have also claimed that the EU was involved in the decision by Romania’s constitutional court to annul the results of last year’s presidential election after the first round was won by Călin Georgescu, a previously little-known nationalist candidate.

The court made the decision due to evidence from the Romanian security services of Russian interference in the election, including through the use of social media and cyberattacks. However, Georgescu called the ruling an “attack” on democracy and a “formalised coup d’état”.

Last month, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, who is aligned with PiS, said that developments in Romania had made him concerned that the EU could interfere in May’s election to choose his successor.

Speaking to reporters in parliament today, Kaczyński said that Virkkunen’s comments show that there are “clear preparations to simply repeat what happened in Romania, that is, to defend this repulsive so-called liberal-democratic, and in fact anti-democratic, system against change, against the building of democracy”.

PiS deputy leader Beata Szydło told broadcaster wPolsce24 that this was “undoubtedly an attempt to interfere in our internal affairs”, which is “absolutely unacceptable”.

“Can you believe that she will hold a round table with Tusk on the presidential election in Poland?” tweeted PiS MEP Michał Dworczyk alongside a photo of Virkkunen attending an LGBT+ pride event.

PiS’s candidate in the presidential election, Karol Nawrocki, told the European Commission to stay “far from the presidential election in Poland”, reports the Niezależna news website.

“Poles will choose their president of Poland. Our president will not be chosen by Brussels, Berlin or Kyiv,” declared Nawrocki.

Meanwhile, PiS figures noted that, in 2020, Virkkunen (who was not at the time a commissioner) posted a number of tweets expressing support for Rafał Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO). She wrote that his victory would “be great news not only for Poland, but for all of Europe”.

Trzaskowski narrowly lost the 2020 election to Duda, whose second and final term in office ends this year. Trzaskowski is now standing again as KO’s candidate and is currently leading in the polls, ahead of Nawrocki.

Weekly polling averages for leading candidates in Poland’s presidential election compiled by ewybory.eu

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: European Union

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.