“This money went either to the families of politicians from the ruling coalition or to entrepreneurs who sponsored the current coalition during the parliamentary campaign. In other words, a kind of repayment of obligations. This is the pathology of this government. This is a gigantic abuse. This is the misappropriation of these funds” – said during a press conference Rafał Bochenek, spokesperson for Law and Justice (PiS), regarding the KPO scandal.
As we remind, as part of the KPO affair, it came to light how the funds from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) were being spent. Funds that were theoretically intended to revive the hotel and restaurant industry were spent on rather absurd purposes. A tanning bed in a pizzeria, yachts, accommodation in “kebab shops,” or luxury cars – these are just a few examples.
Many of these grants went to friends or even family members of politicians belonging to the current ruling camp, which all the more provokes irritation among both the public and small business owners whose applications were rejected. Or – who didn’t even know about the call for applications.
Exhibition titled KPO – Civic Platform’s Cash
Today, another press conference was held by PiS politicians on the KPO scandal – but in a slightly different form: an exhibition. Spokesperson Rafał Bochenek gave the details: “Today we are opening the exhibition – KPO – Civic Platform’s Cash. This is an exhibition that illustrates what has happened over the past months and weeks with EU funds here in Poland. Contrary to what one of the ruling coalition’s politicians claims – that there is no scandal – people in the streets, Polish citizens who follow this closely, especially in recent days, say that there has been gigantic misappropriation, squandering, and outright theft of public funds” – he pointed out.
He continued, stating that “the money from the KPO – because that is the original name and expansion of this abbreviation – are funds that were supposed to be allocated to Poland’s development, to support the Polish economy, especially after the pandemic, to rebuild this economy, to give it a certain economic impulse in terms of the functioning of our homeland, to build all the infrastructure – schools, roads, kindergartens. And of course, this was supposed to lead to the creation of additional jobs and employment for Polish citizens. Funds that were meant to serve development, to constitute innovative aid for our homeland, have been squandered by Tusk’s government on individual investments that in no way correspond to what these funds should actually have been spent on” – he added.
Bochenek admitted that “everything indicates – and it will probably be very closely monitored in the near future – but as we can see from media reports, [the funds] were spent on yachts, coffee machines, catering companies that bought sailing boats. This has nothing to do with the priority that was presented to us and promoted back when the KPO funds were being distributed among the individual member states”.
Bochenek: this is the pathology of this government
What’s worse, in Poland, as it turns out, these funds were either allocated to businesses run by the families of PO politicians or to people from their broader political circle. Or they constituted a kind of fund for compensating PO’s supporters during the parliamentary campaign. Because what emerges from the information now coming out? That companies which supported PO or the broader Koalicja Obywatelska (KO – Civic Coalition) during the campaign are beneficiaries of this money. “This money went either to the families of politicians from the ruling coalition or to entrepreneurs who sponsored the current coalition during the parliamentary campaign. In other words, a kind of repayment of obligations. This is the pathology of this government. This is a gigantic abuse. This is the misappropriation of these funds” – said Rafał Bochenek.
He also referred to one of Donald Tusk’s statements from the parliamentary campaign period, comparing those words with reality. “Donald Tusk in 2023, during the parliamentary campaign, promised that funds from the KPO would be used to develop our homeland and that we would all feel it. Today we all, as Poles, as citizens, feel a gigantic odor – even a stench – that has spread over these funds, which were supposed to be well-invested in Poland and work for the benefit of the homeland” – he recalled, adding that “what we are left with now is a huge loan that all of us, for these individual whims of Tusk’s government, will have to repay – not only for the coming years. The KPO is, above all, a loan”.
According to the PiS spokesperson, at this moment “Donald Tusk is trying to shift and blur responsibility either onto entrepreneurs – because they will be controlled – or onto those who at some stage performed technical tasks related to implementing this program. But it was, after all, Donald Tusk’s government, it was Tusk himself who directly set the program’s criteria, determined the rules for granting funds, signed the contracts, approved the invoices, and signed off on the acceptance of individual investments”.
The second lie, which also comes from Tusk’s recent words, is that “it happened due to a ‘mistake’” because he allegedly wanted “to distribute the funds as quickly as possible”. “Nothing of the sort – the KPO funds are not being invested at all. There is even a gigantic risk that part of these EU funds will never reach Poland. This is a dozen or so percent of real use of the funds when it comes to the loan portion – and I’m not even talking about the grants, which constitute only a few percent of actual use, of investment in the Polish economy. In every statement on this subject, Donald Tusk is deceiving Polish citizens” – the politician stated.