22 January 2025
ECR Co-Chairman Patryk Jaki (PiS, Poland) has scolded Donald Tusk, warning that his leadership is characterised by double standards and disregard for the rule of law.
Speaking in the debate on the programme of activities of the Polish Council Presidency, Mr Jaki accused the Polish Prime Minister of saying one thing on the European stage while doing the opposite at home. He warned that confidence in Mr Tusk’s leadership would be naïve, given his track record of political opportunism and legal overreach in his country. “The EU turns a blind eye because it suits their agenda,” Mr Jaki declared. “But this is not democracy, nor is it the rule of law. It is raw political power, exercised without restraint.”
Despite Mr Tusk pledging to strengthen the Union’s independence from Russia, his collaborators recently approved a gas deal with Russian suppliers and removed a Gazprom-linked company from the sanctions list, Jaki said.
Mr Jaki also warned of Tusk’s disregard for the rule of law in his country, highlighting his forced takeover of the prosecutor’s office, refusal to comply with Supreme Court rulings, and politically motivated arrests of opposition MPs, some with immunity. Courts and judicial bodies have been subjected to police intervention, and corruption cases involving senior government figures have been distorted or suppressed. With state funding withdrawn from opposition parties ahead of the elections, Jaki condemned Tusk’s government for trampling on democracy while cynically posing as its defender.
“He arrests people without respecting their right to a fair trial, he ignores immunity. He arrested two MPs despite their immunity—in the presidential palace. He did the same with another MP who had immunity from the Council of Europe—the last person to do that before him was Putin”, Mr Jaki said.
Despite claiming to champion innovation, according to Jaki, the Tusk government has dismantled key projects in artificial intelligence and next-generation nuclear technology—undermining Poland’s scientific progress. While talking about freedom, Mr Tusk has introduced legislation allowing the state to remove online content at will, blocked Poland’s largest news channel from holding press conferences and is now openly discussing revoking its licence.
“He talks about respect for freedom—and he has drafted a law that will allow his civil servants to take down any content on the internet. Like the Communists in China”, Mr Jaki pointed out.
Meanwhile, critics of his government face repression, with people arrested simply for expressing dissent.
“A young man who criticised the government online for their ineptitude during the floods was simply arrested. This is the kind of freedom Mr Tusk loves”, Mr Jaki added.
Against this backdrop, Mr Jaki dismissed the “euphoria” of those heralding Mr Tusk’s leadership as a victory for pro-European policies as “completely misplaced”.
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Mr Jaki’s full speech reads:
Poland has everything necessary to lead important processes in Europe. -Poland is located in the central part of Europe. It can build major airports, logistic hubs. It has the most coal, so it can have the cheapest energy. Poland has the sea, mountains, and rivers, so it can become a tourism and trade powerhouse. Poland is also the safest country in Europe and we are building the biggest army in the region.
Poland has an impressive history. This year marks one thousand years of the Polish kingdom, during which we built a state with the greatest political and religious freedom and the first constitution in Europe. Over the last decades, we have been the fastest-growing country on the continent.
We have everything we need, but we have one problem: a prime minister who acts like a fraud. Instead of using these resources to build the strength of Poland and by this the strength of Europe, he prefers to copy all your ideological nonsense.
He also learned from you that in politics you can say one thing and do the exact opposite. And that means: He talks about independence from Russia, and last week in Warsaw he bought Russian gas for 26 million Zlotys and took Gazprom’s partner off the sanctions list, which was bought in a sham deal for amount of three Polish Zlotys.
He talks about defending borders and fighting migration—and he is implementing a migration pact with you, and right in Poland he is building 49 migrant centres to make the last safe place in Europe look like you.
He talks about innovation in the EU—and he has destroyed excellent teams working on artificial intelligence and a project for a third generation nuclear reactor. The only one of its kind in Europe.
He talks about respect for freedom—and he has drafted a law that will allow his civil servants to take down any content on the internet. Like the Communists in China. And he never let Poland’s biggest news channel into his conference—and now his government is publicly discussing how to revoke its licence. A young man who criticised them online for their ineptitude during the floods was simply arrested. This is the kind of freedom Mr Tusk loves.
He talks about the competitiveness of the economy—and pursues that stupid green ideology of yours that has given us the highest energy prices on the continent.
Finally, he talks about the rule of law, a state based on the rule of law. And do you want to know what that looks like in practice? Well, he has wiped his boots with the law! He talked nicely today about ‘the need for unity’, right? And do you want to hear what that looks like in practice?
In Poland he announced another ‘Nuremberg’ for his opponents. ‘Nuremberg”—those are his exact words. That is, the hanging of Nazis.
Tusk’s government took over the Prosecutor’s Office by force. In the Polish system, the president’s consent is needed to change the national prosecutor. But Tusk did not care at all, he did not even ask the president, he simply used force. He did the same with the media.
The Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court ordered Tusk to reinstate the legitimate prosecutor, but he said he wouldn’t comply with these rulings. To quote him anyway: ‘We are going to take actions which, according to the legal authorities, will be incompatible or not fully in line with the attributions of the law’, and further: ‘I am going to take them in the full knowledge that not all of them will be in line with the rule of law from the point of view of legal purists’. End of quote. Do you know of any other Prime Minister in Europe who has said quite directly that he knows he is breaking the law and will continue to do so?
He arrests people without respecting their right to a fair trial, he ignores immunity, he arrested two MPs despite their immunity—in the presidential palace.
He did the same with another MP who had immunity from the Council of Europe—the last person to do that before him was Putin.
He harasses the women he arrests to force confessions from his opponents. Never punished for anything, he has given women the status of ‘dangerous individuals’—like terrorists, restricting their food and watching men perform physiological activities. This was confirmed in a special report by their elected ombudsman. And where are the defenders of women’s rights now?
He has also taken over the courts. He sent police with guns to the Judicial Council.
Tusk also distorts all the criminal cases of his people. He twisted the case of the President of the Senate, who was accused of corruption, and there are testimonies from 250 people in this case—an absolute record in Europe. He also twisted the case of a minister in his government, in a case of millions of euros worth of dirty corruption, where people have admitted to it.
On top of that, in Poland parties are funded by the budget—Mr Tusk took all the money from his main rival. So in this year’s presidential election he will get about 50 million from the budget and the opposition, which is bigger than his party, will get nothing.
The Supreme Court ruled that Tusk had broken the law in this case and ordered him to pay the opposition funds. And he wrote that he would not implement this ruling and that was that. In general, his rule is a daily criminal chronicle.
And, of course, this abuse of power, violence, attacks on institutions, disregard for the rulings of the courts and flagrant violation of the law does not prevent him from dressing himself up as a guardian of the law. He observed it here with Mr Reydners, with whom he worked. And today it emerged that he was laundering lottery money in the morning and lecturing Poland about respecting the law in the afternoon.
So let me be clear, the EU has no competence in this matter. I do not expect any intervention. But I just want people to know what hypocrites you are. I want them to hear about the double standards. And speaking of who should retire - if we want to make Europe great again, you need to be sent back to retirement.