Poland's PiS pleads for donations after illegal spending penalties
World
Poland's PiS pleads for donations after illegal spending penalties
WARSAW (Reuters) - Lawmakers from Poland's nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) will give it part of their salaries, its deputy head said on Friday after penalties for its misuse of state funds left it in dire financial straits.
The electoral commission on Thursday decided to slash tens of millions of zlotys from PiS's funding, saying it had illegally used state money in its 2023 general election campaign.
PiS deputy head Mariusz Blaszczak said that lawmakers in both houses of the Polish parliament and the European Parliament would give the party part of their salary.
"PiS lawmakers will be supporting our party financially through donations starting in September," Blaszczak told a press conference. "MPs and Senators will pay a minimum of 1,000 zlotys ($260) per month, and MEPs a minimum of 5,000 zlotys."
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the commission's decision was "scandalous".
He called on "Polish patriots" to support the party financially in a bid to stop Donald Tusk's pro-European Civic Coalition (KO) from winning a presidential election scheduled for next year.
The electoral commission said that PiS illegally spent 3.6 million zlotys ($931,000) on the 2023 electoral campaign. It listed electioneering at events designed to encourage military recruitment and an advert from the justice ministry as examples of misuse of funds.
As punishment, PiS will lose around 10 million zlotys ($2.6 million) from the funding related to its 2023 election performance, and will also lose about 10 million zlotys per year in annual funding until the end of the current parliamentary term in 2027. It will also have to repay the money it spent illegally.
The commission warned that it could lose annual funding completely.
The head of Tusk's office, Jan Grabiec, was unsympathetic about PiS's problems.
"It would have been enough not to steal," he wrote on social media platform X. "Then there would be no need to whine now."
