Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday accused the former Law and Justice (PiS) party of embezzling billions of public funds during its eight years in power.
Financial inspectors are currently investigating 90 state institutions, Tusk said in Warsaw, saying the PiS government has spent the equivalent of $25 billion illegally.
The conservative, nationalist PiS party, which set Poland on a confrontational course with the European Union, led the country from 2015 to 2023.
It lost parliamentary elections in October last year and Poland. The country has been governed by a centre-left alliance led by Tusk since December.
So far, 62 people are under investigation, while the Public Prosecutor’s Office has received 149 complaints, Tusk said.
“What is most striking is the deliberate strategy of using government money flowing from the ministries to fund foundations run by politicians or their relatives,” he said.
Tusk added that PiS was very creative in using these public funds for election campaign advertising.
He also spoke of a ‘closed system’ in which not only government money, but also entire authorities and their employees were used to the benefit of the ruling PiS party.
The current Ministers of the Interior, Justice and Finance have signed an agreement to jointly prosecute abuses and financial crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice and return the embezzled funds.
Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki rejected the allegations in an article on X, calling them lies aimed at “liquidating Poland’s largest opposition party.”
