“I will no longer use the acronym CPK to describe this major transport project,” Tusk said on Tuesday before a Cabinet meeting.
“Today, everyone in Poland reads it as Cały PiS Kradnie,” he added, referring to the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and accusing it of stealing state property on a massive scale.
He said the then agriculture minister approved the sale on October 19, 2023, and that key formalities were completed within 24 hours between November 30 and December 1.
“You know how long farmers wait to buy or swap land. Here, the operation moved in a day,” he said.
'Stench of corruption'
Tusk called the case a scandal, spoke of a “stench of corruption,” and said his government would act by the book, not in a spirit of political revenge.
His comments followed media reports that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under Law and Justice (PiS) cleared the sale of about 160 hectares once held by the National Centre for Support of Agriculture (KOWR) to a private buyer.
The planned high-speed rail line from Warsaw to the hub runs through that tract.
After the reports, PiS suspended Robert Telus, a former agriculture minister, and Rafał Romanowski, a former deputy minister, from party rights pending clarification.
On Monday, prosecutors opened an investigation into whether officials at the Warsaw branch of the National Centre for Support of Agriculture exceeded their powers for financial gain.
Responding to questions about whether the state can repurchase the plot, the National Centre for Support of Agriculture said there is currently no basis to exercise its contractual repurchase right.
The centre said that a 2010 Constitutional Tribunal ruling ended any automatic statutory repurchase right. Since then, KOWR has relied on clauses in sale contracts under the Civil Code, which can be used within five years if specified conditions arise.
According to the agency, those conditions include changes that move the land toward non-agricultural use, municipal steps toward rezoning, proceedings that could lead to expropriation, discovery of uncounted mineral deposits, or a further sale by the buyer.
KOWR, which manages state agricultural property, said none of those triggers had occurred. It added that the director general would issue a repurchase notice immediately if a contractual condition appears.
The Central Transport Hub is a planned new airport and rail interchange west of Warsaw that would anchor a national high-speed rail network.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, gov.pl