Polish PM Donald Tusk has been accused of trying to pressure Speaker of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia to postpone Karol Nawrocki’s swearing-in ceremony as president, in a move labeled a coup d’état by one Law & Justice (PiS) MEP.

According to Interia journalists on the “Polityczny WF” podcast, cited by Do Rzeczy, despite the prime minister’s alleged blackmail efforts, Hołownia has called for the National Assembly to assemble for Nawrocki to take his oath on Aug. 6, leading to further tensions among the coalition partners. 

Journalist Marcin Fijołek reported that the Speaker of the Sejm received a “very clear proposal, offer, or suggestion from the head of government to postpone Karol Nawrocki’s swearing-in.” 

He then gave an alternative take according to Professor Andrzej Zoll, whereby Hołownia opens the session but calls for a recess after two minutes for some indeterminate amount of time, weeks even, in order to “count the votes.”

“What they were preparing was the very definition of a coup d’état. I have no doubt about it,” MEP Patryk Jaki told Polsat News. The Law and Justice deputy chairman said the prime minister added that Tusk backed away from the idea due to his party’s decline in the polls.

“Democracy means that whoever gets the most votes wins. However, what they were planning is the standard definition of a coup d’état. If they wanted to undermine the election of Poles by, excuse me, prostituting their lawyers, that’s the classic definition of Article 127 of the Penal Code, meaning a coup d’état,” said the MEP.

The politician noted that criminal proceedings for such intimidation will be necessary in the future, “once the prosecutor’s office is in legal hands.”

“All the circumstances will need to be investigated. However, there is an overwhelming number of facts that indicate that such an operation was indeed being prepared,” concluded the PiS vice-president.