The neo-liberal government of Poland has claimed that Russia has deployed an “unprecedented” level of disinformation and other interference tactics amid the impending presidential election, as the conservative challenger has gained in the polls.
Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski has claimed that due to Poland’s importance to Ukraine’s war efforts, its upcoming presidential election has been put in the crosshairs of Moscow, which, he claimed, has used tactics like cyberattacks and disinformation to meddle with the democratic process.
“During the current presidential elections in Poland, we are facing an unprecedented attempt to interfere in the electoral process from the Russian side,” Gawkowski said according to Reuters.
“This is being done… [by] spreading disinformation in combination with hybrid attacks on Polish critical infrastructure in order to paralyse the normal functioning of the state,” he added.
The government minister said that attacks on infrastructure have come in the form of cyber strikes on heat, power, water, and sewage companies and other state administrative bodies, and claimed that the number of such attacks against Poland has doubled over the past year.
The disclosure of alleged Russian interference in Poland comes less than two weeks before voters will head to the polls for the first round of the presidential election to replace conservative Andrzej Duda, who is coming to the end of his second and final term in office.
The race had appeared to be heading toward a blowout in favour of former presidential candidate and Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski, the preferred candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s globalist Civic Platform party.
However, the race has tightened considerably in recent weeks, with political newcomer, Institute of National Remembrance Chairman Karol Nawrocki of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), surging in the polls following a series of strong debate performances, including last month when he mocked the liberal mayor by placing an LGBT rainbow flag on his debate stage podium.
In an apparent attempt to derail Nawrocki’s surging popularity, opponents have seized on a report that he and his wife owned a second apartment, after the candidate claimed in a debate to be like most Poles, in having only one apartment. Nawrocki’s campaign has asserted that his family purchased the apartment from an 80-year-old neighbour so that the pensioner could remain in his home free of charge rather than being evicted. Others have raised questions about the story, given that the elderly man has since moved into government social housing.
Regardless, Nawrocki has claimed that the information about the apartment was leaked to the press by the government’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) to aid the campaign of his opponent. The ABW has denied involvement and said that it intends on taking legal action against Nawrocki for allegedly spreading disinformation.
The role of state security services and other government institutions in the democratic process has come under increasing attention, with populist parties facing lawfare efforts across the EU in recent months, including the move by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution political police force to classify the AfD as an “right-wing extremist” party this month, allowing for mass surveillance of the party, its elected officials, and its members.
The use of supposed Russian interference was also used to cancel elections in Romania last November after populist candidate Călin Georgescu won a surprise victory, which Romanian intelligence officials claimed was bolstered by Russian boosting of his TikTok account. The populist candidate was later banned from standing in elections and faces prosecution for supposed disinformation.
Georgescu’s replacement, George Simion, told Breitbart News last month that if he and Nawrocki are elected presidents of their respective countries, they will serve as a bloc to help advance the MAGA agenda in Europe, particularly in the efforts to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
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