Is Poland also looking to cancel elections and persecute the opposition if a candidate unfavorable to the left-liberal establishment wins? After authoritarian forces in Romania banned presidential frontrunner Călin Georgescu from the election and subsequently arrested him, such a move could be repeated elsewhere, including in Poland.
“Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABA) has reportedly been told to contact its Romanian counterpart what materials they used for the constitutional court in Romania to invalidate the election there,” said Stanisław Żaryn, advisor to the President Andrzej Duda, talked about this development ahead of Poland’s May presidential election on the “Otwarta Konserwa” channel.
The ABW is tasked with securing Poland against potential foreign influences during its election period, but this request seems to be doing the exact opposite.
According to Żaryn, the ABW asked specifically about what documents had been presented to the constitutional court in Romania, which allowed the court to invalidate the elections, reports wPolityce.
“And this is a certain light bulb that goes on for me in this situation, because it looks as if the team at the ABW was preparing how to prepare arguments, documentation, to possibly challenge the election result, because that is how it is interpreted,” he said.
Żaryn further stated that he has received information that the ABW is specifically looking to block an election result that certain groups would find unfavorable.
“This information is surprising, because today we should be preparing ourselves first and foremost to realistically assess Russian actions against Poland and counter them, and not to think about how to document or create documentation that will allow for the invalidation of the elections,” Duda’s advisor added.
Duda has already raised concerns in the past about what occurred in Romania. Last month, he questioned whether democratic elections can still be genuinely free if only candidates favored by the EU are able to win.
“Is it so that today elections in individual countries — democratic ones, it would seem — can only be won by those who are accepted in Brussels? I have such an impression, and I don’t like it very much,” he remarked, expressing skepticism over the European Commission’s involvement in both Polish and Romanian affairs.
He expressed unease over reports that prominent European Commission members admitted to influencing the Romanian elections, warning that “you will have to defend the results of elections in Poland if it turns out that someone intends to manipulate these results.”
Duda hinted at the possibility of public demonstrations to protect electoral integrity, suggesting that Poles may need to exercise their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly if they perceive any threats to democratic processes. “Maybe you’ll just have to demonstrate?” he said, warning that similar situations are unfolding across Europe and could destabilize democratic institutions.
