With just days to go before the first round of Poland’s presidential election, the campaign has been marred by allegations from conservative Law and Justice (PiS) lawmakers that foreign-funded operations are interfering in the vote.
At a press conference this week, PiS MPs, including Anna Gembicka and Rafał Bochenek, accused two online entities of spending record sums on political ads aimed at discrediting right-wing candidates Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen.
According to Gembicka, Meta’s Ad Library shows that between April 29 and May 6, 2025, the Facebook pages “You know how it is not” (Wieszjakniejest) and “Adults’ Table” (Stół Dorosłych) spent a combined total of over PLN 250,000 (€58,900) on targeted political advertisements — more than any single official candidate’s page.
“These were the highest advertising expenditures in this category,” Gembicka said, as cited by wpolityce.pl. “Expenses that even surpassed the expenses of the committees of individual candidates.”
The accusations have ignited a fierce political row. PiS MPs claim the domains were registered to dubious addresses — one to a vacant building in Gdańsk and another to what appears to be a construction site. Both domains reportedly share the same phone number and are connected to a network of entities with alleged links to foreign influence operations.
“The companies in which these domains are registered are connected through German intermediaries that have previously been used to push Russian disinformation,” Gembicka alleged.
She also tied the controversy to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, claiming that he should answer for the activities of groups with links to billionaire financier George Soros. “We know very well that Rafał Trzaskowski was a Soros scholar,” she said, suggesting that Soros-backed organizations may be covertly supporting Trzaskowski’s campaign.
Former Digitization Minister Janusz Cieszyński revealed that he reported the “You know how it is not” account to Meta on April 22. “The ad account was registered with an address in Gdańsk — a building that doesn’t exist. Facebook said they wouldn’t do anything about it,” he posted on social media.
Gembicka and other PiS politicians also criticized the silence of Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, accusing him of ignoring the issue because the attacks benefit Trzaskowski. “What has Minister Bodnar done in this matter?” she asked. “Is it perhaps the case that if advertisements hit Mr. Trzaskowski’s opponents, Mr. Bodnar simply turns a blind eye?”
They also demanded action from the National Electoral Commission, warning that such campaigns “divide Poles” and serve the interests of hostile foreign powers. “Given the huge threat from the east, this kind of division only plays into Russia’s hands,” Gembicka said.
The row comes at a critical moment in the race. For much of the campaign, Trzaskowski, the Civic Platform mayor of Warsaw, led comfortably in the polls and still does in some surveys.
However, a new survey from AtlasIntel, conducted between May 8 and 11, shows Nawrocki of Law and Justice narrowly leading the first round with 29.3 percent, just ahead of Trzaskowski at 29.2 percent. Support for Sławomir Mentzen of the right-wing Confederation has dropped considerably in recent weeks and now lies at 12 percent, while candidates from the left and liberal center, such as Adrian Zandberg (Razem) and Magdalena Biejat (Lewica), are polling between 6 percent and 7 percent.
The closely fought election is scheduled for May 18. With no candidate projected to win an outright majority in the first round, a runoff appears likely.
