Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki has said he alone decides his schedule and who he meets, rejecting a report that access to him was being sold at a summit in the United States.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki in New York on Monday.PAP/Radek Pietruszka
„No one has to pay to meet the president,” Nawrocki told reporters in New York, where he and First Lady Marta Nawrocka are on a visit that included a Polish-American Economic Summit on Monday.
„I am responsible for my calendar — certainly not any foundation, any association, or even my ministers,” he said.
His remarks followed a report published on Sunday by Polish outlets Radio Zet and Newsweek, which said the summit — organised by private foundation Centrum Strategii Rozwojowych (CSR), with Nawrocki as its main draw — was a sponsored event.
The article claimed donors could purchase packages that, depending on the tier, included a one-on-one conversation with the president.
Invitations were reportedly sent to major corporations from the email address of Karol Rabenda, a minister in Nawrocki’s office.
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, also in New York, said no one had asked him for money in exchange for a meeting with the president.
He said it was normal for firms and think tanks to seek funding for conferences, but that promising access to Nawrocki would raise „image and even legal” concerns, noting that trading on influence is a criminal offence in Poland.
Government spokesman Adam Szłapka called the issue „absolutely scandalous,” saying the minister’s alleged role in „soliciting business clients” was doubly damaging — reflecting poorly on public life and effectively barring people who cannot pay from meeting the president’s circle.
He rejected comparisons to paid-access events involving former US politicians, arguing a sitting president cannot be treated in the same way, and said he believed prosecutors should investigate.
(ał/gs)
Source: PAP
Radio Poland