Polish opposition leader accused of contemplating ‘coup’

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Poland’s rightwing opposition leader has encouraged the use of “various methods” by supporters of his Law and Justice (PiS) party to challenge the new government of Donald Tusk as politicians warned that worsening political polarisation could turn violent. 

Jarosław Kaczyński on Thursday questioned the legitimacy of the recently elected Tusk government, calling for a “transition period” and fresh elections. “We have an emergency situation. The constitution is practically no longer valid. Therefore, various methods can be used.”

The threat comes as Donald Tusk’s pro-European government — which took power in December after eight years of rightwing nationalist rule — has been feuding with the opposition over the conviction of two PiS lawmakers for abuse of power.

Some politicians claimed that the opposition was seeking to incite an episode similar to the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021, after Donald Trump denied he had lost the presidential election.

“If anybody really has a coup in mind, it’s probably Kaczyński,” said Tusk on Thursday. “We don’t have to have a coup because we won the elections and legally took over power in Poland.”

He added that his long-standing political rival was acting like “a man increasingly detached from reality, and on a scale that looks grotesque although with some dangerous tendencies”.

Parliamentary speaker Szymon Hołownia said this month that PiS lawmakers had “threatened me that they would do a second Capitol in the Sejm”, the lower house of parliament. But he insisted that the Sejm would “cope with attempts at obstruction”.

The feud escalated after Kaczyński threatened legal action to accuse Tusk formally of torturing two PiS lawmakers convicted and imprisoned for abuse of power.

A court ordered Mariusz Kamiński, a former interior minister and one of the jailed lawmakers, to be force-fed after he and Maciej Wąsik, his former deputy, began a hunger strike in prison. Kamiński was briefly transferred to a hospital to check on his low blood sugar levels this week.

The police arrested Kamiński and Wąsik on January 9 at President Andrzej Duda’s presidential palace, where they sought refuge from imprisonment after being convicted in December. The pair of lawmakers were released from prison after receiving their second pardon from Duda this week. 

Their wives had led repeated protests outside the prison and stood by Duda when he announced his new pardon on Tuesday. 

Kaczyński, standing outside the main chamber of parliament, said on Thursday that his party “would appeal to the EU to accuse the Polish authorities of using torture”. 

He added: “I am convinced that this is Tusk’s personal decision and he should be held personally responsible for torture in Poland.” 

Police in Warsaw reinforced security around parliament on Thursday following reports that Kamiński and Wąsik, who were stripped of their parliamentary mandates after their December convictions, were preparing to reclaim their seats by force. 

To help defuse tensions, the committee in charge of parliamentary proceedings ordered that the lawmakers should be allowed in as visitors.

Kamiński said on Thursday that he and Wąsik planned to go to parliament in the coming days, but on their own terms and not those set by Hołownia, who also leads one of the parties in Tusk’s coalition.

“We are not former MPs,” Kamiński told wPolsce, a Polish media website. “There are illegal attempts to deprive MPs of the ability to exercise their mandates.”

On Wednesday, Tusk warned that Kamiński and Wąsik could face fresh prosecution even after being pardoned by the president for a second time, possibly over their alleged role in deploying the Pegasus spyware during the years when they ran the country’s anti-corruption bureau.

The then PiS government acknowledged purchasing Pegasus for law enforcement and national security purposes, but not to spy on political opponents.

Kaczyński claimed on Thursday that the pair were “in very poor health as a result of the crimes that were committed against them while in prison”.

Duda, who is a PiS nominee, has so far sided with the opposition and Kaczyński in his feud with Tusk, which goes back more than two decades. The PiS leader has repeatedly accused the premier of being both “a German agent” and helping the Kremlin kill his twin brother Lech, who was then president and died in a plane crash in 2010 in Russia, when Tusk was prime minister.

But despite the PiS accusations on Thursday, it was not immediately clear how Tusk’s government could be ousted within the democratic framework. His centre-right coalition holds a majority in both houses of parliament after winning October’s election with a record turnout.

The premier has vowed to push ahead with his reforms and the dismantling of the state apparatus built by PiS during its eight years in power. He is also counting on support from Brussels, which has welcomed the return to office in Warsaw of a pro-European politician.