Former CEO of Polish energy giant Orlen, Daniel Obajtek, who is standing as a candidate for the former ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) in the European parliamentary elections, is playing a game of cat and mouse with Poland’s ruling liberal government, which is actively pursuing him to appear before a parliamentary investigative committee.
He is allegedly living in Hungary, with speculation running wild in Poland about his whereabouts. However, the PiS candidate for MEP has actively posted that he is campaigning in southeastern Poland.
On Wednesday, Obajtek once more did not appear at a parliamentary investigative committee on irregularities in the issuance of labor visas to which he had been summoned.
The committee chairman, Michał Szczerba, who is standing for Donald Tusk’s party, Civic Coalition (PO), in the EP elections, told reporters that Obajtek will be fined €700 for his non-attendance and that the committee has decided to instruct law enforcement to detain him and bring him to the committee’s next hearing on Friday, June 7.
Obajtek told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that “he is engaged in his election campaign and does not have the time to attend hearings, as a witness.” He also took to social media to say he would appear at a hearing after the elections were over.
Polish media has been awash with rumors that Obajtek is hiding abroad because he fears being detained on orders of public prosecutors. According to commercial Radio Zet, Obajtek is staying in a luxury villa in Budapest, as a guest of a company linked to a relative of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Obajtek reacted quickly to these revelations, posting a photograph in which he is surrounded by his supporters in the southeast of Poland.
“Are these photos from Hungary?” he asked.
In addition, he admitted, he had held business talks abroad, a fact he has been open about in scores of Polish media interviews, and asked journalists to stop campaigning for Tusk’s party with fake stories.
When Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was asked about the media revelations on Obajtek during a press conference, he told reporters that he would not be surprised if Obajtek was staying in Hungary, and promised he would ask Orbán about the matter next time he sees him. Tusk added that he hoped Obajtek would soon appear in front of a Polish court instead of staying in a villa in Hungary.
Obajtek responded to Tusk by posting, “When you were skiing in the Dolomites, I never asked where and with whom you spent the night.”
