Just as Democrats have carried out lawfare (legal warfare) against former President Trump in the United States, while prosecuting and jailing some of his former officials, Poland’s current left-wing government, led by the Civil Coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, is prosecuting and jailing members of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) administration that ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 including among others, a Catholic priest and a prominent Catholic politician. Persecution of political opponents seems to be occurring in the context of a broader challenge to the rule of law and the judiciary’s independence under Tusk’s government, as Polish experts have recently pointed out.
In January 2024, less than a month after Tusk had taken office, Polish special services – the Internal Security Agency (ABW) – carried out the unprecedented arrest and jailing of the former Minister of Internal Affairs Mariusz Kamiński and his associate Maciej Wasik for alleged irregularities during their administration, despite the fact that President Duda had pardoned their political conviction in 2015 and that the Constitutional Tribunal had confirmed the legality of the presidential pardon. After two weeks in prison, the president pardoned them again in 2024, but the attempt to pursue frivolous and malicious prosecutions was telling of the government’s plans for the following months.
The anti-Catholic government ordered the arrest of Father Michał Olszewski, a Catholic priest who has been held in custody for seven months, in response to politically motivated claims against him that were initiated by the media.
In March, the anti-Catholic government ordered the arrest of Father Michał Olszewski, a Catholic priest who has been held in custody for seven months along with two officials from the Ministry of Justice, in response to politically motivated claims against him that were initiated by the media. The prosecutor's office accuses Fr. Olszewski of unlawfully receiving funds from the Ministry of Justice for the construction of a shelter for abuse and crime victims, which has almost been completed. The PiS President Jarosław Kaczyński denounced that, during his imprisonment, the priest has suffered torture, including starvation, sleep deprivation and unwarranted solitary confinement.
More recently, in July 2024, the new left-wing Ministry of Justice prosecuted the former administration’s Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanowski, a high profile conservative Catholic. Leftist politicians did not hide the fact that his detention was aimed at obtaining incriminating evidence for alleged crimes committed by his superior, former Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, whom Tusk accuses of being the leader of an “organized criminal group” and of committing official crimes that would consist in granting public subsidies to conservative and Catholic organizations that Tusk and his party do not find to their liking.
Romanowski was charged by specially selected prosecutors with a whopping 11 counts of “official crimes”, including allotting discretionary funds to conservative groups that the current administration disagrees with, all during his time performing official functions as a deputy justice minister in the former government. Even though Romanowski voluntarily presented himself to the prosecutor’s office and cooperated with them stating that he had no plans to disrupt the proceedings or flee and was willing to address the “serious, baseless, politically motivated accusations”, a few days later he was strip searched and arrested by ABW officers at his home, in a public televised event.
In regard to Romanowski's arrest, former PiS prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated that “he had to be spectacularly detained, for drama, for spectacle, for effect. This is disgusting and disgraceful.” Polish European Parliament Member Arkadiusz Mularczyk called the arrest a “serious abuse of power” by the current government.
In regard to his arrest, former PiS prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated that “[…] he had to be spectacularly detained, for drama, for spectacle, for effect. This is disgusting and disgraceful.” Polish European Parliament Member Arkadiusz Mularczyk called the arrest a “serious abuse of power” by the current government. If found guilty, Romanowski faces up to 15 years in jail.
Prior to his arrest, Romanowski held both national and European immunity from prosecution for official acts. As a member of the lower chamber of parliament called the Sejm, he enjoyed immunity, but that immunity was lifted after enormous pressure from Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar.
Eventually, European immunity protecting Romanowski from political prosecution was also lifted. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Chairman Theodoros Rousopoulos originally confirmed Marcin Romanowski’s immunity on July 17 and demanded his immediate release. The District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów decided not to accept the prosecutor's request for prolonged pretrial detention and released Marcin Romanowski. The prosecutor’s office pursued an appeal against the district court's decision, which was rejected on September 27. In it, they demanded Romanowski’s arrest and a leftist party-friendly judge to retry him. After losing that appeal, Bodnar’s prosecutors successfully turned to PACE to lift Marcin Romanowski’s parliamentary immunity, which they finally approved on October 2.
Political prosecutions are illegal in Europe as in the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court recently recognized absolute presidential immunity in Trump v. United States in a decision that will protect any future president from political or malicious prosecution. Likewise, political persecution through the courts is prohibited in Europe, as stipulated in the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which is binding on Poland and other European Union members.
European political elites, however, appear to be lending support to Donald Tusk’s political prosecutions, as illustrated by the recent PACE vote to lift parliamentary immunity from Marcin Romanowski, which took place on October 2. Animus against right-wing conservatives seems to be motivating some decisions in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which tend to be dominated by the exact same political groups as the European Parliament, which is an institution of the European Union. The Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organization regrouping 46 member states which have signed the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Union is a supranational organization to which 27 member states have agreed to transfer part of their sovereignty. All members of the European Union are members of the Council of Europe, but the opposite is not true.
Should the Polish Left persist in prosecuting Romanowski, European parliamentary immunity could come into question for MPs from other nations too.
An informal coalition of anti-right, anti-conservative political groups seems to have been dominating the European Parliament for decades, rewarding ideological allies and punishing those that they disagree with. The same happens in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For instance, as long as Law and Justice governed Poland, the PACE persistently blocked the appointment of a Polish judge to the Council of Europe’s European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), only to unblock that process after Donald Tusk and his allies came back to power last fall.
Internationally, recent political prosecutions seem to follow similar patterns. They are often disguised as financial corruption cases with abuse of discretion charges. The charges raise serious doubts in the Romanowski and Olszewski cases, since allocating discretionary executive funds for conservative groups and Catholic charities is not objectively a crime, regardless of how unpalatable it may be to the new left-wing administration. Likewise, Tusk’s categorization of conservative politicians as members of a criminal organization simply because they allocate executive funds to conservative organizations and pursue common conservative political objectives is obviously arbitrary and vindictive.
Recent political prosecutions both in the United States and Poland involve partisan judges and media campaigns against the accused. When the media, however, bring out objective facts uncovered by conservatives, leftist governments make vigorous calls to “stop spreading disinformation”, as occurred when Fr. Olszewski’s torture complaint to Poland’s human rights commissioner and the U.N. Committee against Torture became public.
Political prosecutions such as those of Olszewski and Romanowski are an unfortunate iteration of outdated communist-era persecutions that until now, were thought to be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the Left seems to be yearning for those days, not only in Poland but also elsewhere.
Defense attorneys are often threatened and intimidated into backing out of the prosecution, as in the notable case of Rudy Giuliani who was viciously punished for being President Trump’s defense attorney, both with financial civil penalties and disbarment. In Poland, Romanowski’s defense attorney, Bartosz Lewandowski, was publicly threatened by the current left-wing Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar with a hostile financial probe into Collegium Intermarium University, a conservative college that he was rector until 2023, which had no relation whatsoever to his representation in the case at hand.
PACE immunity, established by the Statute of the Council of Europe adopted in 1949 and developed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE Res. 2392 in 2021), was created to counteract politically motivated investigations against members of the Council. The Civic Coalition government and the PACE itself are currently attempting to do just that, as Marcin Romanowski was one of the first politicians to appear on the forum of this international organization, informing about the violation of democratic principles and the rule of law in Poland by the government of Donald Tusk.
Should the Polish Left persist in prosecuting Romanowski, European parliamentary immunity could come into question for MPs from other nations too. Some PACE members have had the foresight to understand this, like Swedish member of parliament Markus Wiechel who expressed concern that “[t]he new [Polish] government's attempt to undermine opposition parties with various methods can be seen as a systematic attempt to weaken existing democratic guarantees”.
Punitive, politically motivated attacks against official immunity are a dangerous game for the Left to play as it may invite retaliation and undermine the same immunity that would protect their own public officials in subsequent administrations. In particular, political prosecutions such as those of Olszewski and Romanowski are an unfortunate iteration of outdated communist-era persecutions that until now, were thought to be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the Left seems to be yearning for those days, not only in Poland but also elsewhere.
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