WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish President Andrzej Duda suggested on Friday that Germany was trying to intrude on the presidential election after a German-owned tabloid newspaper reported a pardon granted to a man who had served his sentence in a case of pedophilia.
FILE PHOTO: Andrzej Duda, President of Poland and presidential candidate of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, speaks after the announcement of the results of the first exit poll on the first round of the presidential election in Lowicz, Poland, 28 June 2020. REUTERS / Kacper Pempel
Duda, a conservative who faces a neck-to-neck race against a centrist opponent in a presidential runoff on July 12, was angered by the Polish tabloid newspaper Fakt.
“Does Axel Springer, a company of German descent that owns the Fakt newspaper, want to influence the Polish presidential election?” Duda, an ally of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said during a campaign rally in the western city of Boleslawiec.
“Do the Germans want to elect the president in Poland?” he said.
The case, in which the pardon was granted in March, was initially reported by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, but Fakt followed up with more details on Thursday.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who also serves as attorney general, confirmed that the pardon was related to a pedophilia case, but said it consisted only of lifting a restraining order and that the man had served his entire sentence.
Duda had applied the pardon law following a request from a victim who was now an adult, added Ziobro, who was shown speaking on the Polish state TVP.
According to Fakt, the man finished serving his sentence five years ago.
Earlier on Friday, the spokesman for Duda’s re-election campaign asked the German ambassador in Berlin to speak to Fakt owners.
“We do not want this type of foreign interference in the electoral process,” spokesman Adam Bielan told PR1 public radio.
The German embassy referred questions to the German foreign ministry, which declined to comment.
Fakt denied meddling in the election and said in a statement posted on its website that it is run by Polish journalists and publishers.
PiS has long accused the foreign media of meddling in Polish affairs.
Duda spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
Alicja Ptak Reports, Additional Reports by Thomas Escritt in Berlin; Edited by Frances Kerry
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