Poland’s prosecution service has demanded the names of those attending May’s Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Rzeszów as part of an investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds.
The demand from the service controlled by the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk was submitted to the conference organisers in September.
The event was set up by Conservative broadcaster TV Republika, which has been ordered to reveal the contact details of the participants to the service.
The prosecutors have also demanded it reveal who authorised the use of the name “CPAC” at the conference.
Prosecutors are investigating claims made by councillor Krzysztof Kłak from the Podkarpacie region. He is also a member of Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) and has made allegations about what he claimed was the illegal transfer of public funds from his regional board to pay for the CPAC conference.
Podkarpacie is in the south of Poland and is controlled by the opposition Conservatives (PiS).
May’s conference welcomed participants from all over the world, including Kirsti Noem, a member of US President Donald Trump’s administration, who voiced support for the victorious PiS presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.
Such support, which had included Nawrocki visiting Trump at the White House, was a source of irritation for Tusk’s ruling coalition. Its members argued at the time of the conference that it constituted “foreign interference in the presidential election campaign”. They called for an investigation into how foreign funds may have been used during Nawrocki’s campaign.
During the Polish presidential election campaign, the KO’s candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, who lost to Nawrocki, was accused of benefiting from foreign funding for his online campaign. An investigation into those allegations has also been launched by prosecutors.
Trzaskowski previously gained financial support from the German State-funded Konrad Adenauer Foundation for a major annual conference organised by his allies.
The Foundation is a German political party foundation associated with but independent from the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Commenting on the prosecutors’ request for details of participants of the CPAC conference, its chief organiser Matt Schlapp criticised the Polish administration.
“It looks as if the Polish Government intends to investigate our influence over the Polish presidential election. Lawfare against political opponents will not work, either in the USA nor Poland. But I have no regrets,” said Schlapp, a close ally of Trump.
“Free Speech will be guaranteed if countries want to be US allies. See you next year,” he added in a hint that CPAC would be back in Poland in 2026.
TV Republika’s head of programmes, Michał Rachoń, reacted defiantly. “Using the legal system against opponents always rebounds on those who do so. TV Republika will not be intimidated. We will not be broken by prosecutors under the control of Donald Tusk,” he said.
The CEO of the channel, Tomasz Sakiewicz, added: “This is madness, we had the US National Security Secretary speaking at the conference. Is Tusk’s government really hell-bent on damaging Polish relations with the Trump administration?”
TV Republika has increased its viewing audience from 0.1 per cent in 2023 to 6.4 per cent now as a result of the Tusk government’s takeover of and purge of journalists at the public broadcaster TVP.
