Kurski takes Tusk to task

During the autumn presidential campaign it seemed as if Donald Tusk was on almost every billboard in the city. Now Jacek Kurski, who previously accused Tusk of having family connections with the German Wehrmacht, alleges this campaign was illegally financed by the insurance company PZU.

Kurski made the accusation on a TV program, and informed the prosecutor's office the next day. Since he suggested that the relevant documentation might be destroyed, prosecutors and policemen raided PZU headquarters, requested the documents regarding the campaign and  interrogated a number of people. An official investigation is to be launched this week.

According to Kurski, PZU paid zł.50 million for the campaign "Stop crazy drivers," which was suspended after a protests from the Association of Polish Psychiatrists (SPP).  However, as the billboards  were already paid for, they were resold to an agency called DougFaberFamily (DFF), which consequently sold them to PO for only three percent of their original price. Kurski also claimed Poznań-based agency Just was involved.

Both agencies deny Kurski's accusations. PZU says that it spent not zł.50 million, but zł.15 million on the whole campaign, and that the billboard campaign was not stopped after SPP's protests, while PO stresses that it did not cooperate with any of the agencies named by Kurski. The party claims that the allegations are unfounded and that it will sue Kurski for slander.

"Jacek Kurski is a liar, and his attacks are an endeavor to discredit the many years of my hard work," Donald Tusk told the Polish media.

PO has suggested that Kurski's accusations are a ploy to divert media attention away from Jaromir Netzel, PZU's newly appointed CEO. Netzel had been chairman of the supervisory board of a firm called Drob-Kartel, which was later suspected of money laundering. Netzel denies the media's accusations of impropriety, and says that he has never been charged with any crime officially.