Marian Banaś is conducting a private war against Law and Justice (PiS) in Poland, but what is scandalous is that he is doing so as the head of the one of the most important institutions in Poland, the Supreme Audit Office. To put it differently, he is using this state institution to carry out personal feuds with his former party which he regards as a deadly threat to his loved ones and himself ever since appropriate institutions began to officially investigate his financial holdings.
The confirmation of NIK’s unfriendly and anti-government operation (which has not yet reached the phase of total war but has all the callings of guerrilla warfare) was Wednesday’s spectacle presented by NIK in the form of a press conference.
During this grand event, Banaś presented a report about the allegedly illegal actions of the government who supposedly tried to illegally conduct correspondence voting in May 2020. The overpowering force of lawlessness which the prime minister and his subordinates were to have committed should have blown the government away even before the full presentation was over. Unfortunately for Banaś, he was unable to experience any such satisfaction.
After the end of this pathetic and fake spectacle — fake because it was not only one-sided but even biased — the government still stands. The only positive experience for the NIK head after the conference was the swooning of journalists from the pro-Civic Platform media. I mention this because this image truly showed the mission which the report was meant to fulfil and who it was supposed to hurt.
The actual culprits who are responsible for the May 10, 2020, presidential elections not taking place is the opposition, with the Civic Platform at its lead. Not only did they not suffer any consequences, they blamed PiS for the whole affair since the start of their boycott of the elections. Only after the boastfulness of some of its members are we learning the truth.
At the end of April, the current head of the PO Parliamentary Club Cezary Tomczyk said proudly and with impunity that: “The Civic Platform threw correspondence voting out to weaken PiS, not strengthen it.”
Some Poles believed that PO actually cared for the health and lives of their countrymen and about the proper conducting of elections. Today, Marian Banaś, who represents NIK, is not only just in the same line as the opposition when it comes to blocking the May 2020 elections, but he is speaking with the same voice as they are. That is the saddest part and something that is very difficult to explain.
Title image: In this Nov. 26, 2019, photo, Marian Banaś, right, the president of Poland’s Supreme Audit Office, arrives at Poland’s parliament, in Warsaw, Poland. Poland’s ruling right-wing party begins its second term caught up in a crisis over Banaś, who faces allegations of wrongdoing but refuses to resign and cannot easily be removed from his job, AP Images.
