Remix News

Tag: Michał Szczerba

  • Is he hiding in Hungary? Former CEO of Polish energy giant Orlen denies rumors as police search for him under orders from Tusk government

    Is he hiding in Hungary? Former CEO of Polish energy giant Orlen denies rumors as police search for him under orders from Tusk government

    Former CEO of Polish energy giant Orlen, Daniel Obajtek, who is standing as a candidate for the former ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) in the European parliamentary elections, is playing a game of cat and mouse with Poland’s ruling liberal government, which is actively pursuing him to appear before a parliamentary investigative committee.

    He is allegedly living in Hungary, with speculation running wild in Poland about his whereabouts. However, the PiS candidate for MEP has actively posted that he is campaigning in southeastern Poland.

    On Wednesday, Obajtek once more did not appear at a parliamentary investigative committee on irregularities in the issuance of labor visas to which he had been summoned.

    The committee chairman, Michał Szczerba, who is standing for Donald Tusk’s party, Civic Coalition (PO), in the EP elections, told reporters that Obajtek will be fined €700 for his non-attendance and that the committee has decided to instruct law enforcement to detain him and bring him to the committee’s next hearing on Friday, June 7. 

    Obajtek told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that “he is engaged in his election campaign and does not have the time to attend hearings, as a witness.” He also took to social media to say he would appear at a hearing after the elections were over.

    Polish media has been awash with rumors that Obajtek is hiding abroad because he fears being detained on orders of public prosecutors. According to commercial Radio Zet, Obajtek is staying in a luxury villa in Budapest, as a guest of a company linked to a relative of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

    Obajtek reacted quickly to these revelations, posting a photograph in which he is surrounded by his supporters in the southeast of Poland.

    “Are these photos from Hungary?” he asked.

    In addition, he admitted, he had held business talks abroad, a fact he has been open about in scores of Polish media interviews, and asked journalists to stop campaigning for Tusk’s party with fake stories.

    When Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was asked about the media revelations on Obajtek during a press conference, he told reporters that he would not be surprised if Obajtek was staying in Hungary, and promised he would ask Orbán about the matter next time he sees him. Tusk added that he hoped Obajtek would soon appear in front of a Polish court instead of staying in a villa in Hungary.

    Obajtek responded to Tusk by posting, “When you were skiing in the Dolomites, I never asked where and with whom you spent the night.” 

  • Poland: Liberal government’s investigation into visa scandal under previous conservative government backfires

    Poland: Liberal government’s investigation into visa scandal under previous conservative government backfires

    The interrogation conducted by the Tusk coalition-led investigative committee in the Polish parliament, is not going as planned. Instead, it has revealed to the left-liberal Civic Coalition (KO) how Poland under the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) was a country governed in a way in which wrongdoing was uncovered and dealt with, which was not always the case under the Tusk government from 2007 to 2015. 

    Mariusz Kamiński, the interior minister in the previous PiS government, simply stuck to the facts of how the state’s security services properly detected and addressed wrongdoing. It should offer an educational experience for the Tusk people, but probably won’t. The contrast with the way the left-liberal government handled previous scandals such as the Amber Gold financial pyramid scheme and the scandal of massive VAT fraud could not be greater.

    Tusk’s party also chose a curious “prosecutor” to pursue Kamński. MP Michał Szczerba tried to allege that PiS opened the door to illegal migration into Poland. This couldn’t have been the same Michał Szczerba who tried to help illegal migrants on the border with Belarus by delivering them pizza, now could it? Surely some mistake. 

    Kamiński simply explained that once he received information about the abuses of the visa regime, he handed the matter over to the anti-corruption agency (CBA), which conducted the investigation and uncovered the irregularities. All the evidence was collected and used during the lifetime of the last government. People were charged, and there were political consequences suffered by the relevant deputy minister. Nothing was swept under the rug.

    What a contrast to the case of the Amber Gold pyramid scheme, where no action was taken even when Donald Tusk, who was also serving as prime minister at that time, was aware that something fishy was up. There was of course also the case of VAT fraud, which revealed that the state security services were completely ignorant. 

    Kamiński during the interrogation was able to turn the tables on Szczerba by reminding him of how there had been irregularities in the issuing of visas during the last Tusk government. 

    The committee hearing turned out to be not only a victory for Kamiński, but also for the way the conservatives ruled the country and combated corruption. Let us hope voters draw the right conclusions.