Recordings of a conversation between Donald Tusk and Roman Giertych, released by TV Republika, shed new light on the internal political arrangements in Civic Platform and on the moral standards of the present governing coalition. The exchange, captured in 2019 while Tusk was President of the European Council—and therefore, under EU rules, should not have meddled in domestic political disputes—suggests quite the opposite.
Behind the candidate-list deals and “eastern Poland, where it’s all shits”
The discussion concerned Giertych’s run for parliament on Civic Platform’s ticket. Giertych complained that Grzegorz Schetyna did not want to put him on the list.
“He didn’t want it… He made a mistake because he would only have benefited. I think he was afraid of you… He’d already been sceptical. He had promised me that nomination earlier,” Giertych told Tusk.
A little later, Giertych vented his anger at being offered other constituencies, describing them in scathing terms.
“I’m pissed off that he didn’t give me a spot for the Senate, because if he had I’d be happy… I couldn’t go somewhere else, to another constituency, because I’d get burned. He offered me five constituencies… Some eastern Poland, Radom, where it’s all shits,” he added.
Tusk showed no emotion and suggested continuing the conversation “when you’re in the Tri-City.”
Handing over the signatures: an ethical scandal?
In TV Republika’s studio, journalists Adrian Stankowski, Cezary Gmyz and Piotr Nisztor focused on the most controversial fragment: Giertych admitted that the signatures gathered for his Senate bid, after Schetyna refused to nominate him, were passed on to Stanisław Gawłowski.
“The key here is the motive. At the very least, we’re talking about a breach of ethics. Those signatures collected for Roman Giertych were handed to Stanisław Gawłowski… Roman Giertych pulled a scam and Donald Tusk didn’t object. The guy collects signatures in Łomianki and they end up in Szczecin… This is, at minimum, an ethical violation, and Roman Giertych is the last person who can talk about election fraud,” the programme’s commentators said.
Tusk, Giertych and the “smiling coalition”
The recording also shows what Giertych thinks of other political actors. Speaking with Tusk about the then-ruling Law and Justice party, he said:
“If they don’t win an outright majority and have to team up with Confederation, they’ll have Korwin-Mikke as deputy prime minister—they’re idiots… It’ll last them two years, tops,” he predicted before the 2019 election.
The journalists noted that Giertych appears to wield enormous influence over Tusk, even though Tusk was officially inactive in Polish politics at the time.
“It’s 2019, so Donald Tusk is President of the Council of Europe. If we transpose that situation to today, it shows how much clout Roman Giertych has in this coalition. In this conversation, he’s trying to steer Donald Tusk… The éminence grise of this ‘smiling coalition’ has the face of Roman Giertych,” one commentator concluded.