The vast majority of Poles are of the opinion that the recent controversy surrounding the use of the Pegasus spyware system to allegedly spy on opposition politicians requires an explanation, according to a poll by United Surveys.
Only 15 percent of respondents were of the opinion that the affair required no explanation. Meanwhile, the poll’s details reveal a very clear political division among Poles on the matter.
Among Law and Justice (PiS) voters, 33 percent of them do not expect any information concerning Pegasus and 31 percent do not have an opinion. Among the opposition, 39 percent of Civic Platform (PO) voters and 60 percent of Left party voters believe that the situation should be explained by a parliamentary investigation commission.
Among both electorates, the idea for a senate commission to deal with the matter is quite popular, with 21 percent of PO voters and 34 percent of Left voters agreeing with this proposal.
Polish weekly Sieci recently asked PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński about the recent reports concerning the possibility of opposition politicians being spied on.
Kaczyński denied any opposition politicians being surveilled using the Pegasus system. He stated that the opposition was once again creating a scandal “out of nothing.”
He assured that Pegasus was a system used by intelligence services focused on fighting crime and corruption in several countries, and that it was used due to recent “technological changes.”
“It would be bad if Polish services did not possess such a tool,” he said, adding that many countries throughout the world use such surveillance programs.
Kaczyński effectively confirmed that Polish services possessed the Pegasus system, despite some PiS politicians denying it earlier.
In December 2021, Associated Press reported that Civic Platform Senator Krzysztof Brejza, lawyer Roman Giertych and prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek were surveilled using the Pegasus program. The press agency referred to the claims of specialists from the Citizen Lab group from the University of Toronto.
Journalists of TVP Info, Polish public television news channel, on the other hand, found out that Citizen Lab was financed by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and several other subjects indirectly associated with the foundation, which support Left organizations.
