The Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) dismissed the conservative party’s appeals on Wednesday, upholding a 2025 ruling by the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, state news agency PAP reported.
The dispute concerned the finance ministry’s refusal to pay PiS the third quarterly installment of its 2024 public subsidy, worth almost PLN 6.5 million (about EUR 1.5 million, USD 1.8 million).
The Warsaw court ruled that Finance Minister Andrzej Domański had not unlawfully failed to act.
It said he had followed a National Electoral Commission (PKW) decision reducing the party’s funding after its 2023 parliamentary election finance report was rejected.
Domański said Wednesday's decision confirmed that he had acted lawfully and without delay.
"This is a final and complete victory over the accusations made by PiS," he told broadcaster TVN24.
He earlier described the ruling as "devastating for PiS" in a social media post.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented that public money would not be available to "those who misused it."
The National Electoral Commission rejected PiS's campaign finance report in August 2024 after identifying irregularities in the use of public resources during the election campaign.
PiS was in government at the time. Domański accused the party of treating state funds as its own money and using them for political purposes.
Political parties represented in Poland's parliament receive annual public subsidies, paid in four quarterly installments. The amount depends largely on their election results, but it can be reduced when campaign finance rules are breached.
PiS received the first two installments of its 2024 subsidy in full. The third was withheld, while the fourth, paid in January 2025, was reduced.
The party received about PLN 15 million for 2024, more than PLN 10 million below the amount it had originally expected.
PiS appealed the commission’s decision to the Supreme Court’s contested Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber, which accepted its complaint.
The National Electoral Commission later approved the party’s financial report but said it was not deciding whether the chamber qualified as a lawful court or whether its ruling was legally effective.
Domański then asked the commission to clarify its resolution, describing it as internally contradictory.
The chamber was created as part of judicial changes introduced under the former PiS government. Its status is disputed by the current government and much of Poland’s legal community following rulings by European courts concerning judicial independence.
Wednesday’s ruling means the finance ministry was legally entitled to rely on the commission's original decision when it withheld the payment, the PAP news agency reported.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński has repeatedly urged supporters to donate money, saying the funding dispute has left it struggling.
Speaking at party headquarters in Warsaw in April, Kaczyński said PiS had been deprived of PLN 46 million (around EUR 11 million, USD 13 million) in state funding and was facing serious financial problems.
PiS governed Poland from 2015 until late 2023.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP