The far-right politicians of Law and Justice convicted and wanted by the police will again receive the grazia. Word of the Polish President of the Republic, Andrzej Dudawho announced his decision after the former Interior Minister, Mariusz Kaminskiand his former undersecretary, Maciej Wasikjoined by a arrest order, were untraceable to the agents. This is because they were coming at that time received right in the presidential palace.
The news has generated quite a bit of controversy at home, also because the two are party comrades of the president sentenced to two years for power abuse. Duda had already tried to guarantee them impunity, but the pardon he had granted had been canceled by Supreme Court because it did not refer to a final sentence. Thus, the president reiterated that he wanted to prevent the two politicians from serving their sentences: “I have decided to start a pardon procedure”, he announced. Duda reported that he was informed that Wasik, in addition to Kaminski, “also started one hunger strike. I said that I would do everything possible, that I would make every effort to restore his freedom as soon as possible so that in the free Republic of Poland there are free people and not political prisoners because it is an insult to their dignity and also offends our international position that after 1989 there are still political prisoners in Poland.”
Behind the president’s move, however, lies an entirely political strategy in the context of the clash with the new liberal government of Donald Tusk. It is no coincidence that, in a televised statement made alongside the wives of Kaminski and Wasik, Duda hoped that the granting of pardon to the two politicians could help to calm tensions between pro-Europeans and nationalists which increased in Poland after the elections.