WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland's election commission decided on Monday to reverse its decision to reject the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party's 2023 financial report, meaning PiS will not lose millions in state funds ahead of the 2025 presidential election.
In August, the commission ruled that the party illegally spent 3.6 million zlotys ($880,000) on its 2023 election campaign, listing candidates at military recruitment events and an ad from the Justice Department as examples of money laundering.
In power from 2015, PiS came first in a bitterly divided 2023 general election but lost its majority, leading to a coalition of pro-European Union parties to form a government late last year.
Trusted and exciting news every day, right in your inbox
See for yourself — Yodel is your go-to source for daily news, entertainment and exciting news.
Had PiS lost the funding, it would have been short of campaign funds ahead of next year's presidential election in which PiS candidate Karol Nawrocki will face the ruling party's nominee, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
This decision is the result of an appeal by PiS to one of the chambers of the Supreme Court whose authority the current government does not know as it sees many judges being illegally appointed by the previous government.
“We decided to use the decision of the Supreme Court to accept the financial report of PiS on profits and expenses for the elections held on October 15,” the head of the electoral commission Sylwester Marciniak told the press.
“The National Electoral Commission does not decide whether the court is a court and does not specify whether its decision will be effective,” added Marciniak.
PiS spokesman Rafal Bochenek called the earlier suspension of funding illegal and called for the money to be released immediately.
“Today's decision of the National Electoral Commission obliges the finance department… to immediately pay the outstanding amount and withhold a sum of more than 17 million zlotys ($4.15 million),” Bochenek wrote on social media site X.
($1 = 4.0882 zlotys)
(Reporting by: Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Source link
