The owner of the business registered at the same address as a swingers’ club said his grant had paid for metalworking machinery, not adult entertainment.
Officials stress that many of the eyebrow-raising purchases met program rules negotiated by the PiS government in 2021, which allowed spending on “diversification” projects such as tourist rentals or eco-friendly attractions.
Tusk has promised “zero tolerance” for abuse of EU funds.
“We put too much effort into unlocking these billions to allow anyone to waste them,” Tusk said on X on Saturday, vowing that “anyone who made mistakes will face consequences, regardless of their position or party affiliation.” Prosecutors have opened preliminary inquiries, and the funds ministry says an audit will deliver initial results by late September.
Coalition strain
For Tusk, the row piles fresh pressure onto an already crowded agenda. The ministry overseeing the funds is run by Polska 2050, a coalition partner led by parliament speaker Szymon Hołownia. His 31-seat party is crucial to Tusk’s majority but has had its own PR headaches, including a summer scandal over a late-night meeting with PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński.
For PiS, the flap has become a way to question Tusk’s ability to manage his coalition and to highlight tensions between the prime minister and Hołownia. The controversy has drawn attention to the role of Polska 2050 in overseeing the program and given PiS an opportunity to criticize both leaders at once.
The spending row comes only weeks after Tusk reshuffled his Cabinet in a bid to regain momentum following a presidential election loss, a shake-up that underscored both the fragility of his coalition and the difficulty of keeping it aligned.
The presidential election saw nationalist Karol Nawrocki defeat Tusk’s preferred candidate, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a result that dealt a major blow to the government’s reform agenda and is expected to make passing legislation far more difficult.