“The signatures supporting my candidacy for the Senate were collected in the Koszalin District, and no one from outside that district handed them over to me,” insists Stanisław Gawłowski, Senator from the Civic Coalition, responding today to the release of the “Tusk tapes.”
Telewizja Republika has revealed the so-called “Tusk tapes.” In a recorded conversation from 2019 between Roman Giertych and Donald Tusk, Giertych speaks of having handed over signatures of support to Stanisław Gawłowski. Previously, Gawłowski had allegedly been “left out in the cold” by Grzegorz Schetyna, then-leader of the Civic Platform.
As reported on X by Dariusz Matecki, he plans to submit a motion to the National Electoral Commission to investigate “whether the signatures collected by Mr. Gawłowski were given by individuals who were aware of whom they were supporting.”
Gawłowski has acted preemptively, firmly denying that any of the signatures supporting his Senate candidacy originated from outside the Koszalin District.
“The CBA and the Prosecutor’s Office have had these recordings since 2019 and have found no violations of the law in this matter,” asserts the Civic Platform’s influential figure from the West Pomeranian region.
What signatures did Giertych allegedly hand over to Gawłowski?
The lawyer mentioned the matter in a conversation with Donald Tusk ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections. The handover of the signatures was said to have occurred after Grzegorz Schetyna allegedly blocked Giertych from running for either house of Parliament.
“You see, had I not had those signatures… I wasn’t running, I decided not to take the risk, you know, because I felt he was setting me up to run in Łomianki, in the north. I took it as a sign someone was trying to undermine me and hurt you in the process — that the candidate you supported would lose. Unfortunately, that would have harmed you. So he took it away from him. But Staszek, since he received my signatures, registered the committee, and then they realized he would run anyway,” Giertych says in the recording.
Former Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanowski also commented on the case:
“The recording indicates that in 2019, Giertych collected blank signatures – that is, at minimum, without specifying the candidate – for the purpose of registering himself as a candidate. He then allegedly handed them over for use in registering Gawłowski as a Senate candidate. This is not just a circumvention of the law – it constitutes a criminal offense under Article 248 point 6 of the Penal Code, which includes the manipulation of support lists where signatures are gathered without full disclosure of both the committee and the candidate.”