Polish Parliament Members Detained by Police Within Presidential Palace

Two convicted MPs, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik, were arrested by Polish police inside the presidential palace in Warsaw. The arrests took place amidst a day of unprecedented political drama. Kaminski and Wasik were previously Poland's interior minister and deputy interior minister. Last month, they were sentenced to two years in jail for abuse of power when they led an anti-corruption office in 2007. The arrests highlight the ongoing political turmoil between the Law and Justice (PiS) party and the new pro-European Union coalition. The two men, who were elected as PiS MPs in October, refused to acknowledge the court's decision due to President Andrzej Duda's pardon of them in 2015. President Duda, an ally of PiS, also stated that he does not recognize the court's ruling, insisting that his pardon remains valid. On Monday evening, the court issued a warrant for the police to detain Kaminski and Wasik. However, the following morning, President Duda invited both men to the Presidential Palace in Warsaw to attend a ceremony where two of their former colleagues were being sworn in as presidential advisers. After briefly speaking to reporters, the men returned inside the palace. Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed his disbelief at the situation during a news conference, asserting that the court's ruling must be respected and suggesting that President Duda was aiding the men in evading justice. Shortly after the arrests, hundreds of PiS supporters demonstrated outside the palace in support of Kaminski and Wasik. The legal situation is further complicated by the fact that the Polish Supreme Court deemed President Duda's 2015 pardon invalid as it was issued during the men's appeal process, before their original conviction was finalized. However, both the Constitutional Tribunal and a new Supreme Court chamber—both staffed by PiS-nominated judges—have ruled in favor of President Duda, asserting that the pardon is still binding. Prime Minister Tusk proposed that President Duda could resolve the stand-off by pardoning the men again, now that the court ruling is final. However, this would raise questions about the legitimacy of the initial pardon. Tusk's coalition government, which came to power last month, has vowed to reverse PiS's changes to the judiciary, public media, and civil service, actions that have been criticized by the European Commission and several international bodies for undermining the rule of law in Poland. The government's first steps included reforming the state TV, radio, and news agency, which PiS had transformed into a propaganda outlet for its government. However, the methods employed by the new government were similar to those used by PiS, involving the removal and replacement of media boards by a government minister ahead of planned legislative reforms. While acknowledging that PiS had made it legally challenging to reform public media, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights expressed concerns about the new government's changes, saying they "raise serious doubts." Mateusz Morawiecki, a former PiS prime minister, accused Tusk's government of launching an unprecedented attack on the rule of law and criticized their actions as undemocratic. Supporters of Tusk argue that these accusations are hypocritical, given PiS's history of controlling state institutions while in power.