The Warsaw Regional Court on Wednesday, 15 April 2026, dismissed Jarosław Kaczyński’s suit against Donald Tusk for protection of personal rights. The PiS leader had demanded a public apology from the prime minister and payment of PLN 10,000 to a charitable cause.
The case concerned Tusk’s statement of 16 June 2023 during a rally at Freedom Square in Poznań. The Civic Coalition leader said at the time: “today this government are serial killers of women”. The words came after the death of a 33-year-old pregnant woman in Nowy Targ and were a direct reference to the consequences of tightening abortion law following the Constitutional Tribunal ruling of October 2020.
Judge Tomasz Jaskłowski ruled that Tusk’s statement fell within the bounds of permissible political criticism and public debate. The court stressed that the phrase was not aimed personally at Jarosław Kaczyński as a private individual, but concerned the political responsibility of the government for the legal chaos surrounding abortion.
“Jarosław Kaczyński did not sign the motion to the Constitutional Tribunal, but he was the leader, without whom essentially nothing happened in politics. He bears moral responsibility for these tragedies” – the judge explained.
As a result of the ruling, Jarosław Kaczyński was ordered to pay Donald Tusk PLN 900 in court costs.
Kaczyński’s attorney, Adrian Stalus, had argued that politicians should bear greater responsibility for their words, but the court did not accept this argument. Tusk’s attorney, Elżbieta Kosińska-Kozak, stressed in turn that the prime minister’s statement was a voice in a heated public dispute and did not constitute defamation.
The ruling is not final. The case concerns one of the most high-profile rhetorical incidents in recent Polish politics and ends in a defeat for Jarosław Kaczyński in court.
Source: Wirtualna Polska
