PiS was supposed to repay the loan in full (according to PiS’s annual report, it is PLN 15 million) or a part of it by the end of July (our sources are not sure whether this is a repayment of the full amount or a part of it). The repayment date coincided with the expected decision of the National Electoral Commission to return the money for the campaign. But there is no decision from the National Electoral Commission yet. Other parties receive money as reimbursement for their campaigns – but PiS does not. The Commission is still investigating irregularities in the financing of the PiS campaign.
According to our sources, the bank has been imposing default interest on PiS since August. In addition, the bank is demanding that PiS immediately repay the loan.
– If we don’t finally receive money from budget subsidies, we won’t exist – says another PiS politician.
But now the situation for PiS is dramatic.
PiS against the bank wall. There are default interest and repayment demands
Our interlocutors from this training say directly that the party’s coffers are empty. There were as many as three campaigns under PiS (parliamentary, local government and European), and a presidential one before that. PiS’s annual report for 2023 showed that the party had a loan of PLN 15 million. PiS spent PLN 38.7 million on the Sejm campaign alone. There is no cash on hand, but there are debts – too much for PiS to bear.
Our sources in PiS say clearly: there is currently no money to repay this loan, because PiS has not received campaign reimbursement from the state budget.
We asked the bank whether it had already seized PiS’s account. PKO BP responded curtly: “The information you request is subject to banking secrecy.”
PiS is wringing its hands.
– The National Electoral Commission continues to postpone the deadline for considering the PiS financial report, so there is no point in appealing to the Supreme Court – says one of the PiS politicians. As he emphasizes, the National Electoral Commission is delaying the decision on the subsidy and thus starving the PiS. The last and third deadline for the National Electoral Commission to announce its decision is August 29.
What if PiS fails to convince the bank to pay later? Krzysztof Izdebski, who is associated with the Batory Foundation and the Open Spending EU Coalition, points out that the bank should first try to collect the debt from the party’s financial representative. But he probably doesn’t have such assets, so the bank will contact the party itself.
– If PiS fails to repay the loan, the party will face enforcement proceedings. Movable assets may also be seized, as PiS does not have any real estate assets of its own. If the bank and PiS fail to reach an agreement, the bank will collect as much money as it can, Izdebski adds. According to him, “it is worse for PiS to wait, because then it may not get anything, than to admit its guilt and keep most of the money.”
The National Electoral Commission is one step away from making a decision. PiS could lose millions
As we have already written in Newsweek, the National Electoral Commission is one step away from rejecting the Law and Justice financial report. There is a majority in the Commission willing to do so. All that is needed are arguments that PiS spent significant amounts contrary to the regulations. These were recently submitted to the National Electoral Commission by the Government Legislation Center and NASK. Our conversations with people in the National Electoral Commission show that on August 29, when the National Electoral Commission meets again, they will agree to the motion to reject the PiS report.
The National Electoral Commission – following changes ordered in 2018 by PiS – is no longer composed solely of judges. Nominations from individual parties dominate in terms of numbers. The nine-member body includes two judges (the head of the National Electoral Commission, Sylwester Marciniak, and Wojciech Sych, who sits on the Constitutional Court and is close to PiS – although he was also a rebel against Julia Przyłębska), there are also two PiS appointees, but the remaining five members – that is, the majority – are people appointed by the ruling camp.
PiS spent PLN 38.7 million on the campaign, and in order to reject the report, it is necessary to prove that 1% was spent (or obtained) illegally. campaign costs – for PiS it is PLN 387,000. However, it cannot be ruled out that the National Electoral Commission will postpone the announcement of the decision again, because government materials are still arriving. And then PiS’s delays in repaying loans will deepen even more.
Up to PLN 100 million. And PiS needs money in 2025.
The amount questioned by the National Electoral Commission does not have to be huge for the PiS report to be rejected. The commission can only investigate specific expenses and income from the short duration of the campaign (and it formally lasted only 67 days in 2023), and not from the eight years of PiS rule. Despite this, Law and Justice could lose millions of zlotys: a maximum of 75%. subsidies and subsidies – in total up to approx. PLN 100 million.
But it doesn’t have to be that much. Of the irregularities recognized by the National Electoral Commission in the amount of PLN 500,000. PLN PiS can – based on the Electoral Code – lose PLN 8 million during the entire term. 1 million irregularities equals PLN 16 million. Theoretically, because in practice PiS may not receive the maximum amount. Why?
The party can appeal the NEC’s decision to the Supreme Court’s Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber. It was created during the PiS government and is not recognised as a court by the ruling camp, following the example of international courts. If PiS does not appeal the National Electoral Commission’s decision to the Extraordinary Control Chamber, it will look like an admission of guilt. But even if Jarosław Kaczyński’s party appealed and the Extraordinary Control Chamber accepted PiS’s claim, the party might not receive the money anyway.
Ultimately, the finance minister, currently Andrzej Domański, is responsible for sending the transfer to PiS – as well as to other parties. PiS could take a long time to receive the money if it appeals to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, PiS urgently needs money for its presidential campaign – the elections will be held in 2025. Nowogrodzka wants to put forward a second-place candidate, so she needs large amounts of money to promote him. The current favourites are, in order: the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, Karol Nawrocki, PiS MP Zbigniew Bogucki and MEP Tobiasz Bocheński.
