In a day of unprecedented political theatre, Polish police detained the deputy interior minister and the former interior minister inside the Warsaw presidential palace.
Last month, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik were given two-year prison sentences for abusing their positions of authority while heading an anti-corruption office in 2007. Marcin Kierwinski, the newly appointed interior minister, wrote on X after the arrests, saying, “Everyone is equal before the law.”
The political unrest between the Law and Justice (PiS) party and the newly formed pro-EU coalition is exemplified by the arrests.
The men, who were elected PiS MPs in October, refused to accept the court ruling from last month because their 2015 crime was pardoned by President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the PiS. Duda has further stated that he believes his pardon is still valid and does not accept the court’s decision.
Despite losing their parliamentary mandates, the two MPs and President Duda maintain that their pardon keeps them as legitimately elected members of parliament.
Police were given a warrant by the court on Monday night to hold the men in custody. Nevertheless, Duda extended an invitation to both of them to attend a ceremony on Tuesday morning at Warsaw’s Presidential Palace where two of their former colleagues were sworn in as presidential advisers.
If they are taken into custody, Kaminski threatened to turn them into “political prisoners” and thanked Duda for his backing.
“We are dealing with a very serious state crisis. A grim dictatorship is being created,” Kaminski declared. The political theatre continued as they went back inside the palace.
