Court orders Sikorski to correct claim that Gibała is a liar before Kraków runoff

The ruling

A Kraków regional court announced on Friday morning, 9 October, that Radosław Sikorski, deputy prime minister and foreign minister, may not repeat the claim that a court had found Łukasz Gibała to be "a liar or a mythomaniac". The case was brought by Gibała's election committee under the electoral procedure, and the decision is not yet final. The court ordered a correction to be posted on Sikorski's Facebook and X accounts, visible until 21:00 on Sunday, when voting in the second round ends. The required text states that Sikorski admits he had no grounds for presenting that claim as fact, and it must be published within eight hours of the ruling becoming final.

The remark in Nowa Huta

The statement dates to Saturday, 3 October, when Sikorski accompanied Monika Piątkowska, the Civic Coalition (KO) candidate, at a meeting with residents of Nowa Huta. He urged voters to back her, saying Kraków residents could choose between a candidate he called proven and someone "whom a court has already found to be a liar or a mythomaniac". The remark referred to an earlier case in which Gibała had said on RMF FM that six KO councillors had approached him about cooperating after a possible victory. The court found Gibała had not proven that statement and ordered him to publish a correction, and all 19 KO councillors denied holding any such talks. The appeal court kept the core of that order and changed only how the correction is published. RMF24 described the current case as the fifth proceeding in election mode.

Arguments and the court's reasoning

The committee's lawyer, Rafał Zontek, argued at a Thursday hearing that the remark went beyond acceptable public debate and that the earlier ruling did not allow calling Gibała a liar or mythomaniac. He told the court:

These two phrasings, setting aside the reference to the court's authority, violate personal rights.

Sikorski's lawyer, Rafał Rozwadowski, asked for the motion to be dismissed, calling the remark a political assessment and interpretation of the earlier decision and an "example of a political manifesto". Presiding judge Zbigniew Zgud acknowledged in his oral reasoning that the dispute centred on the tone of public debate, and said:

However, this in no way authorises participants in this political debate, even the most heated one, to use untrue facts in it.

Zgud said the proceeding established that no court ruling calls Gibała a liar or mythomaniac. He added that had the deputy prime minister offered his own assessment of the candidate, it would have mattered less than invoking a court ruling. The court dismissed the committee's request for an apology and for a payment of 10,000 zł to a public benefit foundation.

The runoff and the earlier dispute

The second round takes place on Sunday, 11 October, between Gibała, a city councillor and entrepreneur who took 36.38% in the first round, and Piątkowska, a KO senator and chair of the Izba Zbożowo-Paszowa (Grain and Feed Chamber), who took 29.91%. The election follows a May referendum that removed Aleksander Miszalski (KO) from the office of city president. Politicians from the governing coalition, especially members of Donald Tusk's government, have appeared at campaign meetings supporting Piątkowska in the Małopolska capital.