In Donald Tusk’s Poland, the presumption of innocence is no longer working. In online postings, the head of government and a great deal of Platform politicians openly called their opponents from the right wing criminals. By doing so, they made the task of Marcin Romanowski’s lawyer very easy.

The former deputy minister of justice obtained international protection in Hungary. Was it difficult? Apparently not particularly. His lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, who was the first to report the fact that he had obtained asylum, reveals quite a lot about how it was possible:

The material presented to the Hungarian authorities, in the form of numerous posts and statements by representatives of the current ruling majority, directly proves the involvement of the authorities in combating members of the opposition parties.

This is exactly the fact that can hardly be contested. Donald Tusk - and, by his example, the rest of the PO and coalition politicians - have an excessive tendency to express their emotions on social media. Predominantly the negative ones. To put it bluntly - Tusk publicly threatens his opponents, announces repression, openly calls them criminals, and claims that they will not escape prison. In a nutshell - in Tusk’s Poland, the presumption of innocence is no longer legally binding.

Let us repeat once again:

The rule of law has virtues of its own, except for one: it is not simple and, just like in gangster movies; the bad guys can make use of it too.

This is back from the summer, about the court’s decision to release Romanowski from custody when it turned out that he was protected by the immunity of the Council of Europe. And more recently, Tusk’s close associate head of the Chancellery, Jan Grabiec, ‘made a joke’ that a municipality that catches Romanowski will be granted a fire engine.

In response, one can jokingly say that Romanowski’s defence lawyer attorney Lewandowski should pay back part of his honorarium to Tusk and Grabiec, because they helped him a lot in ensuring that the Hungarians granted protection to his client. There could hardly be a better argument for the fact that Romanowski has no chance of a fair trial in Poland before impartial and independent judges.

Moreover, in his motion, Dr Marcin Romanowski pointed out that he cannot count on a fair trial in Poland due to the political involvement of some judges who openly support the current Minister of Justice @ABodnar, as well as publicly declaring the necessity of making so-called ‘settlements’, i.e. convicting politicians of the largest opposition party in Poland

— wrote attorney Lewandowski.

It is difficult to now predict how this story will evolve, as it is in many respects - by no means an exaggeration - a historical precedent. But one thing is crystal clear: in a few days’ time, there will be discussions at the Christmas tables. The number one topic: prices. Butter, energy and everything else. Now topic number two has arrived: the Hungarian asylum for Romanowski and the international consequences of this. Both topics have one thing in common: the proof of the ineptitude of Donald Tusk’s government. Catching Romanowski even before Christmas was supposed to be a spectacular success. Instead, it turned out to be a spectacular blunder.

Tłum. K.J.