Opposition MP calls on PM to disclose his wife's assets

The head of the opposition Civic Coalition (KO) parliamentary caucus has urged Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to disclose his and his spouse's assets after a national daily reported that Morawiecki's wife had bought plots of land near a seaside town.

"Iwona Morawiecka, the wife of Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister, has bought plots of land worth PLN 3 million (EUR 650,000) near the seaside town Jastrzębia Góra," the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, which is critical of the government, reported on Monday.

"They have not been declared because the assets of the Morawieckis are one of the most closely guarded secrets of the PiS state," the daily added, referring to the ruling party, Law and Justice.

"Over four years ago, Morawiecki promised to disclose the assets acquired by him and his spouse," Borys Budka told reporters in Katowice, southern Poland, on Monday.

"He made the declaration during an election campaign, pretending he had nothing to hide," Budka continued, adding that the prime minister had failed to keep his promise.

"Later, even when an appropriate law had been passed, Morawiecki kept maintaining that he will not disclose their assets as the Constitutional Tribunal found the law unconstitutional," the MP said.

The Tribunal ruled that it is unconstitutional to require family members of a politician to disclose their assets.

According to Budka, Morawiecki should not think about the unconstitutionality of the law but should simply present their matrimonial property in the form of a notarial deed.

"This is what I did in 2013 when I won a Sejm (lower house of parliament - PAP) seat," Budka said, adding that both he and his wife wanted to disclose their assets to the public.

Asked by right-wing website wPolityce.pl about media reports concerning the finances of his family, Morawiecki said that all attacks and charges looked the same before every election.

Having recalled that he had earned a lot of money while holding the post of a bank president, Morawiecki said that it was easy to check it as all his remuneration had been published in the bank's reports.

Referring to the purchase of land near Jastrzębia Góra, Morawiecki said that "now, my wife has become the target of such attacks."

"The purchase of this land is one of her recent 'offences'," Morawiecki said, adding that his wife wanted to open a summer centre for children from orphanages and elderly Solidarity trade union activists on one of these plots.

The prime minister also sharply criticised the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper for publishing "fantasy stories."

"It is enough to print a catchy title, and the rest doesn't matter," Morawiecki concluded.