Poland’s president said on Monday he would approve a bill authorizing a panel to probe Russian influence despite opposition complaints that it is a witch hunt against government opponents in an election year.
The ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party claims that the liberal opposition Civic Platform (PO) party allowed Poland to become dangerously dependent on Russian fossil resources while in office from 2007 to 2015, raising doubts about whether PO members were under Moscow’s sway.
PO denies the accusation, claiming it is meant to remove former prime minister Donald Tusk from politics before October or November elections.
Opposition figures call a bill to create an investigative panel, the “Lex Tusk” (Latin for “law”).
President Andrzej Duda said he would sign it but would urge the Constitutional Tribunal to review it when it takes effect owing to concerns it is illegal.
“I am signing the act because I believe that it should enter into force, should start functioning,” Duda stated.
The commission will investigate 2007–2022, and anybody found to have acted under Russian influence will be barred from security clearance or public fund management for ten years, disqualifying them from public service.
The PiS’s small majority in parliament would choose the panel’s members. Critics claim the plan will harm democracy and give a public administrative body power over court duties.
PO lawmaker Marcin Kierwinski criticized Duda’s bill signing.
“In a normal democratic country, somebody who is president of that country would never sign such a Stalin-esque law,” he told private channel TVN 24.
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