Polish ruling party raises campaign funds from state firm managers while private business supports opposition

Poland’s two main parties have each raised almost 2 million zloty (€447,000) from large donors towards their campaigns for October’s parliamentary elections, according to analysis of their declarations by news website Onet.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has received most of its contributions from managers at state-owned companies while the opposition Civic Platform (PO) has obtained them mainly from representatives of private firms, in particular Polish gaming giant CD Projekt.

Tak partie szukają pieniędzy na kampanię. Wiemy, gdzie fundusze zbierają PiS i Platforma https://t.co/qR7NxtnGPa

— Onet Wiadomości (@OnetWiadomosci) August 18, 2023

Under Polish law, parties can only begin financing their campaigns after elections are officially called. That happened on 8 August, when President Andrzej Duda announced the elections would take place on 15 October.

However, parties can receive donations towards those campaigns before they officially begin, and both the national-conservative PiS and centrist PO long ago began appealing for contributions, notes Onet. They are required to report any payments above 10,000 zloty (€2,234)

PiS currently has almost 2 million zloty in such donations, which are “almost entirely” made up by contributions from senior managers at state-owned firms, reports the news website.

Among those who have made the maximum contribution allowed, of 45,150 zloty, are the CEOs of large state firms: Daniel Obajtek of energy giant Orlen, Beata Kozłowska-Chyła of insurer PZU, Leszek Skiba of Bank Pekao, and Paweł Szczeszek and Wojciech Dąbrowski of electricity providers Tauron and PGE.

„Of course I want Law and Justice to win [this year’s elections], I make no secret of that,” said Daniel Obajtek, the head of state oil firm Orlen, when asked if he would be making donations to the ruling PiS party for its campaign https://t.co/IHnUBGRHfg

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 7, 2023

Other major donors from state-owned firms include senior managers at Grupa Azoty, a chemicals giant, PKP Cargo, a logistics operator, and PKO, another bank.

Many of Poland’s largest firms are fully or partially state owned, and as such they tend to be under the influence of whichever party is in power. PiS has, however, been accused of politicising state firms to an unusually large degree, including installing allies in leadership positions.

Advertising funds from state firms have been directed towards government-friendly media outlets and away from more critical ones (something that has happened under previous governments too).

Earlier this year, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund put Orlen – in which it owns a stake – under observation over concern that its purchase of hundreds of local media outlets creates a “particularly serious risk of political influence in connection with elections”.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has placed Polish state oil giant Orlen – which it owns a stake in – under observation over the „risk that the company contributes to serious violations of human rights” through its ownership of dozens of Polish media outlets https://t.co/KnQAAeTiQD

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 23, 2023

Meanwhile, PO has raised almost 1.8 million zloty from large donations, with “the money coming primarily from people at large private businesses”, notes Onet. Almost a quarter of this, 420,000 zloty, has come from senior figures at CD Projekt – including its CEO Michał Kiciński – and members of their families.

The same figures at CD Projekt – which created the enormously successful Witcher series of games as well as CyberPunk 2077 – also contributed generously to the presidential election campaign of PO candidate Rafał Trzaskowski in 2020.

Other donors to this year’s PO election campaign include billionaire investor Roman Karkosik, jewellery mogul Wojciech Kruk, and Arkadiusz Muś, founder and CEO of Press Glass, a large glass manufacturer.

Polish video game developer @CDPROJEKTRED, best known for the @witchergame series, has overtaken bank @PKOBP to become the highest valued company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange https://t.co/8FjMlYJAPE

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 4, 2020

Onet notes that the other main parties competing in October’s elections have obtained much less from such donations. The Left (Lewica), for example, has reported 30,000 zloty, the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PLS) 12,000 zloty and the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) has listed no payments.

The centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) has, however, raised almost 1 million zloty, including contributions from its own leader, Szymon Hołownia, and one of its election candidates, Norbert Pietrykowski.

While Poland has strict laws on campaign financing – which Poland 2050, among others, has fallen foul of – there are concerns that parties – in particular the ruling PiS – are finding ways to evade them.

The opposition, for example, has accused the government of supporting PiS’s campaign by organising a series of state-funded “family picnics” to promote a rise in child benefits that was one of the ruling party’s main election pledges.

The government has been accused of using state funds to support the ruling party’s election campaign by organising dozens of “family picnics” around Poland to promote its flagship child benefit policy.

The events provide free food and entertainment https://t.co/S1dwwOihFX

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 27, 2023

They also note that the government is seeking to hold a referendum at the same time as elections and that referendum campaigns have much looser financing rules.

While only political parties can finance election campaigns, a “virtually unlimited” range of entities – including foundations, associations and individual citizens, as well as parties – can conduct referendum campaigns, notes Adam Gendźwiłł, an election expert at the University of Warsaw, speaking to broadcaster TVN.

The ex-head of Poland’s electoral commission has announced he will boycott the government’s planned referendum.

He also advised people on how to legally avoid participating while still voting in parliamentary elections due to take place at the same time https://t.co/NZ9giNlhdw

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 16, 2023

However, a figure from the PiS-led ruling camp, Adam Bielan, today also raised concern that PO is “circumventing financing rules” through events organised by Campus Polska, an initiative led by PO deputy leader Trzaskowski.

“I hope the PKW [National Electoral Commission] will look into this event,” Bielan told TVP, the state broadcaster, which has itself became a mouthpiece for the government.

Following Poland’s last two elections in 2019 and 2020, election observers from the OSCE expressed concerns that TVP had “acted as a campaign vehicle for the incumbent”, with a “lack of impartiality…[that] undermined voters’ ability to make an informed choice…[and] amplified the advantage of the ruling party”.

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Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.