Support for Poland’s ruling coalition led by Law and Justice (PiS) weakened in a poll published on August 23 after a scandal broke involving officials from the justice ministry who orchestrated a social media smear campaign targeting critics of the government’s judicial reforms.

Should more polls confirm the dent in PiS’ popularity, the ruling party might face not winning an outright majority — which it enjoys now — in the general election due on October 13.

PiS came in at 39% in the poll by Kantar carried out after news website Onet broke the news about the scandal. That is 5pp down compared to the previous survey by the same pollster. The opposition group Civic Coalition (KO), led by the largest opposition party Civic Platform (PO), closed in on PiS at 30%, a gain of 3pp.

PiS has been in apparent complete control of the political process in Poland so far but it is now facing questions after Onet reported that Deputy Justice Minister Lukasz Piebiak hired an internet troll to roll out a smear campaign against judges critical of PiS’ controversial reforms of the judiciary.

After winning the election in 2015, PiS overhauled Poland’s judiciary in a series of reforms contested by the opposition and the European Union. In a key change, PiS seized control of the National Council of the Judiciary, a judge-appointing body, leading to accusations it was ensuring political control over judges’ nominations and therefore courts.

The reform met stiff opposition from judges, however, pushing the government to launch a covert attack on critics. Reports by Onet and later by other media showed that a woman – revealed to be the wife of pro-PiS judge Tomasz Szmydt and identified as Emilia – was hired to launch a hate and slander campaign on social media against judges critical of the reforms. She also fed information on the judges to pro-government media.

The woman – active on social media as “Mala Emi” (Little Emi) or “Emi” – reportedly belonged to a WhatsApp group with around 10 justice ministry officials and pro-government judges, including Piebiak. The officials provided “Emi” with information to discredit judges.

In one case, “Emi” was reportedly fed information about the private life of Krystian Markiewicz, who heads the Iustita judges’ association that is critical of the government. “Emi” then used the information to try to discredit Markiewicz online and in the pro-government media.

“It's important that people in Iustitia at least know who they are dealing with. People will spread it, and Markiewicz will quieten down knowing what there's going round about him," Piebiak allegedly said in an email to “Emi”.

In another case, a pro-government judge and a member of the WhatsApp group Konrad Wytrykowski – who was eventually elevated to the Supreme Court – was reported to have suggested sending postcards to the Supreme Court head Malgorzata Gersdorf, a prominent critic of the reforms, telling her to “F*** off!”. Gersdorf told the press she had received at least three such postcards. Wytrykowski denied having anything to do with the postcards.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Piebiak was forced to step down on August 20 but questions remain as to whether his superior, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, knew of the shenanigans. 

Ziobro denies any knowledge and told media via a spokesman that “such practices are not acceptable.” Piebiak was, however, reported to have said in emails he was keeping his “boss” informed.

Opposition and judges want an investigation into the scandal and demand Ziobro either step down or be dismissed by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. As the chairman of PiS’ junior coalition partner, the Solidarna Polska party, Ziobro is, however, key to the stability of the government and it seems unlikely he would be let go a mere seven weeks before the election.

The online smear revelations are another scandal to hit PiS shortly before the pivotal election in which the party will be seeking a second term in power that, critics say, it will use to erode Poland's democracy further. In early August, PiS-nominated parliamentary speaker Marek Kuchcinski stepped down after media reports that he was abusing the right to fly a government jet.