Left on “lex Tusk”: The commission has one task. It will pour cesspools on those who can threaten PiS

By TVN 24 | 30 August 2023

“We will not participate in the work of this commission because it is illegal in nature, and illegal things need to be stigmatized, not given new fuel,” Krzysztof Gawkowski of the Left said of the commission established under the so-called lex Tusk. Krzysztof Smiszek said that the only task of this body would be to “splash mud on the opposition.” 

The Law and Justice party has put forward nine people for the commission to investigate Russian influence, no other parliamentary club has put forward candidates, the director of the Sejm Information Center reported. The law passed on the matter is referred to as lex Tusk. European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand warned that if the commission “takes action in the context of the upcoming elections,” the EC could decide to take the next step in the infringement procedure. 

On Wednesday, Left MPs Krzysztof Śmiszek and Krzysztof Gawkowski held a press conference on the issue at the Sejm.  

Gawkowski: the search for Russian spies has to start with ourselves, which PiS is not doing 

“It was during the Law and Justice government that the most Russian coal entered Poland, various institutions had facilities to operate in Poland. Mr. Antoni Macierewicz sometimes influenced the Russian Federation, not the Polish raison d’etat, with his actions. This has been going on for the last eight years, and Law and Justice wants to investigate what was 10-15 years ago,” Gawkowski said. 

He announced that the Left will not contribute to the functioning of the comms. “We will not participate in the work of this commission, because it is illegal in nature, and illegal things should be stigmatized, not given new fuel. We will not report people there, we will not appear before it,” he stressed.

“Neither Mr. Morawiecki, nor Mr. Kaczynski, nor any other member of this commission will tell us who is a Russian spy in Poland. The search for Russian spies has to start with ourselves, which PiS is not doing. But we will do it instead. In the next term, we will institutionally establish such a body that will explain all these faults and sins of Law and Justice, and not sweep it – as Kaczynski is doing now – under the rug,” he said. 

Śmiszek: there will be a pouring of cesspools on those who can threaten the Law and Justice Party. 

Śmiszek said that “the PiS majority will appoint a commission and its members, who really have one task: to splash mud on the opposition. In fact, this commission will be such a big garden hose from which septic tank will be poured on all those who can threaten Law and Justice,” he said. 

He pointed out that “the Polish constitution knows no such body.”  

“What Law and Justice is trying to appoint today, the members that Law and Justice wants to appoint is actually a political chutzpah and a legal chutzpah,” the MP assessed.