WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish police on Tuesday arrested two politicians convicted of abuse of power who took refuge for hours in President Andrzej Duda's palace, in a dramatic escalation of the standoff between the new and previous governments.
Duda welcomed members of the former ruling party to the presidential palace, while police went to their homes to arrest them. Polish media reported that the men were arrested inside the palace. Warsaw police did not provide any details, saying only that the arrest was made “in accordance with a court order.”
The events exacerbated the dispute between the new government led by the Prime Minister Donald TuskThe conservative Law and Justice Party, which ruled Poland for eight years until last month, was defeated in the election General elections in October.
Duda is closely allied with PiS and makes clear he will oppose Tusk's agenda. Duda's second and final term will last until mid-2025.
Tusk, who promised to restore democratic norms in Poland, accused the president of going along with PiS's actions to create chaos and instability after his electoral defeat, saying Duda “must stop this spectacle that is leading to a very dangerous situation.” Situation.”
The Prime Minister claimed that the President was obstructing justice by granting wanted persons asylum. At a press conference, he read out the section of the penal code that Duda allegedly violated, which carries a prison sentence of between three months and five years.
“I just want the president to know what his political friends have deceived him about,” Tusk said.
The dispute centers on two prominent PiS members, former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former deputy Maciej Wasik, who briefly emerged from the palace to speak to journalists hours before they were arrested.
“We are not hiding,” Kaminsky said. “We are now with the President of the Republic of Poland until evil loses.”
Kaminski and Wasik were found guilty of abuse of power for actions they committed in 2007, when they were serving in a previous PiS-led government. Duda pardoned them in 2015, although legal experts said such pardons are reserved for cases that have passed all appeals.
In June, the Supreme Court of Poland The pardon was revoked He ordered a retrial. Last December, Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison. On Monday, a court issued police orders to arrest them and hand them over to prison. They insist they are innocent, and Duda says the amnesty is still valid.
On Tuesday, Duda invited Kaminski and Vasek to his palace for a ceremony in which he appointed two officials who had worked with them as his new advisors. His office posted a photo of him Pretend with the four.
Earlier today, Parliament Speaker Simon Holonia postponed the scheduled session of the House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, which was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, until next week.
Kaminski and Wasik, who were re-elected as representatives in October, have said they want to participate in the session, despite Holonia and others insisting that their convictions, under the law, strip them of their parliamentary mandates.
Holonia said the situation has created a “deep constitutional crisis… that does not guarantee that the deliberations of the House of Representatives this week will be peaceful.”
Kaminsky is the former head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau who was convicted along with Wasik and two others of abusing their power to create a provocation in a sting operation seeking to identify their targets. This scandal contributed to the collapse of the first PiS government in 2007.
Tusk's allies welcomed the arrests, saying they represented a return to holding officials accountable. “Let this serve as a warning to politicians for the next generation,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said on social media.
Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was among PiS officials who expressed their anger, describing the detained men as “political prisoners.”
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