Social media boiled over on Monday evening after it came to light that Konrad Berkowicz, an MP from Confederation, was caught by security while walking out of an Ikea furniture store with items he hadn’t paid for. “I scanned everything, but it turned out not everything went through. Just ordinary inattention,” the politician explained on social media. Prime Minister Donald Tusk decided to comment and take a jab at the opposition. That did not end well for him…
The last Monday of October turned out to be a pretty bad day in Konrad Berkowicz’s parliamentary career. While shopping at the popular furniture chain, the politician failed to scan all the items he was buying at the self-checkout. The “mistake,” worth 390 złoty, came to light when store security stopped the MP and called the police. The officers fined the politician 500 złoty.
The Interior Ministry’s press spokesperson, Karolina Gałecka, confirmed the MP’s identity.
“I was doing quite a lot of shopping at IKEA today, in a big rush, listening to something on my headphones. I was scanning everything, but it turned out not everything got scanned. Just ordinary carelessness. A frying pan and some plates. A stupid mistake, for which I apologized and accepted a ticket. I didn’t hide behind parliamentary immunity like Mejza or Sterczewski,” Berkowicz wrote on Facebook late in the evening.
Donald Tusk reacts to the stolen plates and frying pan
The MP from Kraków apologized for the incident and accepted the fine. That set off a real storm on social media, because theft is a crime or an offense that can only be committed intentionally. By accepting the fine, according to some commentators, Berkowicz was essentially admitting that he took those household items “with the intent to appropriate them,” as defined in the criminal code.
And since every goat jumps on a leaning tree, Prime Minister Donald Tusk saw an opportunity here to distract from his government’s lack of successes.
“One of Confederation’s leaders, Berkowicz, caught trying to steal at Ikea. Not much compared to PiS, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” the head of government crowed on X.
He didn’t have to wait long for a clapback.
“Dude, you stole 150 billion from Poles’ pension funds. Better keep quiet,” one user wrote.
“Mr. Prime Minister, does the fact that for 2 years you haven’t touched the issue of KOWR selling that plot of land to the owner of Dawtona come from your love for PiS, or from the fact that the head of Dawtona paid hundreds of thousands of złoty into Trzaskowski’s campaign?
After all, you’ve known about this since 2024,” reads another post.
Konrad Berkowicz under fire
Not everyone accepted the MP’s explanation that he “unconsciously took in” a frying pan and a few plates and some smaller odds and ends.
“If there was no theft, then why did he accept the ticket instead of appealing it? Theft is intentional, the store has CCTV, so it would be very easy to prove the version where Berkowicz simply made a mistake,” one commenter wondered.
“And what have you done to stop Tusk and the Civic Platform from discouraging Poles from the CPK (Central Transportation Hub) project? Because Berkowicz tried to cover that up by nicking stuff at Ikea. Incredible guy!” – said Tomasz Lipiński, former Poznań city councilor.
“MP Berkowicz convinced me. I’m willing to believe he doesn’t know how to use a self-checkout. We have to accept that some citizens are digitally excluded,” journalist Patryk Słowik remarked sarcastically.