The former Minister of Internal Affairs Mariusz Kamiński appeared before the parliamentary investigative committee for the second consecutive day.
On Monday, he testified as a witness before the commission investigating the so-called visa scandal, and on Tuesday, before the investigative committee on the attempt to hold a postal ballot for the presidential elections during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. And this time, emotions in the room were running high.
From the outset of the hearing, Kamiński clashed with the chairman of the committee, Dariusz Joński from Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO). Kamiński insisted that he is still an MP, something Joński would not accept since the speaker of the parliament invalidated Kamiński’s mandate following the former minister’s criminal conviction for irregularities in an anti-corruption sting in the 2000s.
But the real fireworks started when Joński asked Kamiński why the former minister had become angry in a government meeting with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and questioned whether this was because he wasn’t sober.
Conservative Law and Justice (PiS) MPs protested the question, saying that the chair was making a mockery of the committee’s proceedings and Kamiński objected to the way it was formulated. When Joński pressed Kamiński to answer the question, Kamiński told him: “You are a swine” and walked out of the committee hearing.
The outraged former minister then spoke to reporters, calling what had happened a “scandal, no witnesses should be treated in such a manner.” He added that “these are insinuations based on lies,” before returning to the room.
The parliamentary committee appointed by the left-liberal majority is investigating the decision to hold postal elections in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PiS government pushed through regulations on postal voting at that time and introduced them by the prime minister’s decree, appointing the Polish Post to carry out the operation.
However, the elections did not take place either at that time or in that format. They cost over 70 million złoty (€16.25 million), and the post office was left with over 26 million packages for postal voting.
Ultimately, the elections were conducted using the traditional method at polling stations in June, and the second round took place in mid-July. Citizens in direct voting elected Andrzej Duda as president.
