Polish lawmakers on Friday passed a bill investigating Russian influence in the country in what the opposition say is a deliberate attempt to influence next year’s elections.
The law provides for the establishment of a commission to investigate alleged Russian influence over the period 2007-2022.
Those found to have acted under Russian influence will be banned for 10 years from positions in which they are responsible for public funds – effectively barring them from public office – and from positions involving require a security check.
The new law was pushed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which alleges that opposition Civic Platform (PO) party made Poland dangerously dependent on Russian fossil fuels when its former leader Donald Tusk was prime minister from 2007 to 2014 .
“We want the law on the commission to investigate Russian influences to come into force and for the commission to be able to work,” said PiS spokesman Rafal Bochenek before the vote.
“If Mr. Donald Tusk has something on his conscience… he should be afraid.”
Opposition condemns political “witch hunt”
The investigations would be led by a committee elected by parliament, in which the PiS party had a slim majority.
PO leader Krzysztof Brejza said the new law is a “Soviet-style idea, stemming from the mentality of (law and justice leader) Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and an attempt to organize a witch-hunt against Donald Tusk and keep him out of Polish politics eliminate”.
Tusk, who is no longer a member of parliament but the leader of the PO party, was present for the vote in the plenary hall.
He called those who voted for the law “cowards” who “broke good parliamentary manners and the basic principles of democracy for fear of losing power, for fear of the people, for fear of the responsibility (which they should face)” after losing the election.”
Former Prime Minister Donald Tusk was present in the Chamber for Friday’s voteCredit: Czarek Sokolowski/AP/picture Alliance
Tusk said the opposition had a strategy to deal with the commission and urged Poles to join him in pro-democracy marches on June 4, the anniversary of the partially free 1989 elections that ousted the communists from power led in Poland.
Slawomir Patyra, a constitutional expert at Marie Skłodowska Curie University in Lublin, told AFP that the law contains a vague definition of Russian influence that can be abused.
“This regulation violates all constitutional principles,” he said.
zc/wd (AFP, Portal)