Elsewhere, Slovakia’s referendum fails over low turnout, Hungary heads for a presidential showdown, and Czechia’s double delegation to the NATO summit sparks controversy.
A scandal involving a young doctor linked to the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) has dominated Polish politics for weeks, prompting dismissals, criminal investigations and a wider reckoning over the management of the country’s public healthcare system.
Investigations by Polish media found that Dawid Kacprzyk, a 28-year-old junior doctor and Civic Coalition district councillor, earned around 1.6 million zlotys (€375,000) in 2025 coordinating the emergency department at the capital’s Southern Hospital despite lacking a specialist qualification.
Hospital records showed Kacprzyk billed nearly 4,000 hours there in a single year – an average of more than 75 a week – while simultaneously working at other hospitals and remaining active as a local politician, raising questions about whether such workloads could have been properly supervised.
The allegations also include claims that politicians linked to the ruling party received preferential treatment through a separate VIP waiting room.
The affair has led to the dismissal of the hospital’s management, the resignation of two Warsaw deputy mayors and a criminal investigation. Whether it will have lasting consequences for the 2027 parliamentary election is unclear, but it has compounded the government’s difficult political position.
According to a poll published this week, 36 per cent of respondents said the scandal had worsened their opinion of the government. A separate poll found that nearly a quarter of Poles believe Donald Tusk’s government should resign over the affair. Beyond the immediate political fallout, the case has fuelled a broader debate about doctors’ pay and oversight of public hospitals after reports emerged of similarly lucrative contracts elsewhere in the healthcare system.
Responding to the controversy, Health Minister Jolanta Sobieranska-Grenda announced plans this week to cap hourly rates paid by publicly funded hospitals, introduce limits on medical salaries, tighten oversight of physicians working simultaneously at multiple hospitals and require greater transparency in contracting and waiting lists. PM Tusk said the government’s priority was to eliminate “pathologies and abuses” that had been enabled by systemic flaws, adding that such practices “are incompatible with the law and must disappear”.
On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, President Karol Nawrocki met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since their recent row over historical memory plunged relations into a crisis. Nawrocki said the meeting confirmed that Poland and Ukraine shared the same assessment of Russia as their main security threat. He acknowledged, however, that longstanding disagreements over the legacy of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) remained unresolved.
Revered by many Ukrainians as a symbol of the struggle for independence, the UPA also massacred tens of thousands of Polish civilians in World War II, making the issue “non-negotiable” for Poland, Nawrocki said. Despite those differences, both sides agreed to continue dialogue. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski described the summit’s outcome as “above expectations”, saying Poland’s delegation had “spoken with one voice” in spite of recent tensions between the President and government.
Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Poland had secured all of its key objectives, including support for extending NATO fuel pipeline infrastructure towards Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. He also pointed to recent US defence investments in Europe and Poland, including an agreement to produce Barracuda-500M missiles and a deal to service Patriot interceptor missiles in Europe, as evidence of strengthening transatlantic defence ties.
The summit came at a tense moment for Poland, amid intelligence from several agencies suggesting that Russia may be preparing provocations on Polish territory in the coming months.
Referendum on Fico’s allowance fails, Tesco eyes regional exit
A nationwide referendum in Slovakia on ending a lifetime allowance for Prime Minister Robert Fico and restoring the anti-corruption Special Prosecutor’s Office and the National Crime Agency has been declared invalid after turnout fell far below the required threshold.
According to official results, only 16.13 per cent of eligible voters participated, amounting to 705,227 people. Under Slovak law, a referendum is valid only if more than half of the country’s 4.3 million eligible voters take part.
Among those who voted, some 93 per cent backed removing Fico’s lifetime allowance, after a failed assassination attempt against him in May 2024, and 92 per cent supported restoring the two anti-corruption bodies cancelled by Fico’s government after he returned to power in 2023. Only 5 per cent voted to keep the allowance, and 6 per cent opposed restoring the two institutions.
The referendum was initiated by the non-parliamentary Demokrati party, which collected more than the required 350,000 signatures. It originally contained three questions, including one on shortening the parliamentary term, but President Peter Pellegrini excluded that question, citing constitutional concerns linked to previous rulings by the Constitutional Court.
The referendum was the tenth held since Slovakia became an independent state in 1993. Only one – on joining the European Union in 2004 – met the threshold.
Tesco meanwhile is reviewing its operations in Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, with the British retailer reportedly considering a sale of its Central European business. The move would end a nearly 30-year presence in the region. Tesco entered Hungary in 1995 and expanded into Slovakia and the Czech Republic the following year. In Slovakia, it operates around 180 stores and employs more than 6,500 people. Across the three Central European countries, the business employs more than 22,000 workers. The review comes as Tesco faces increasing competition from discount retailers. Lidl and Kaufland have overtaken Tesco in Slovakia in sales terms, while Polish chain Biedronka is preparing to expand further into the market.
Tesco’s Central European division generated €5.3 billion in revenue last year but contributed a relatively small share of the group’s overall profit. The company has also reported pressure from rising costs and regulatory changes affecting retailers in the region. In Slovakia, this may be connected to the government’s efforts to consolidate public finances by taxing companies more.
Hungary scales back on SAFE, president to be ousted
Hungary will request only €10 billion from the EU’s SAFE fund, according to the critical daily Nepszava, citing sources in Brussels. Viktor Orban’s former government had requested an eyewatering 17.4 billion euro from the EU’s defence loan facility but was finally allocated 16.2 billion – still the second highest amount in the EU.
Nevertheless, its SAFE programme plan has not been approved and the money has not been transferred. Hungary remains the only applicant country whose plan remains pending on the Commission’s approval.
The new government, which won a landslide majority in April, is working on updating Hungary’s SAFE programme. Prime Minister Peter Magyar has acknowledged that the Orban government requested an “absurd amount”. The Ministry of Economy and Energy told Nepszava that the review of Hungary’s programme is ongoing but requires a thorough assessment, taking into account the actual development needs of the Hungarian Armed Forces, the potential for civilian use of the investments, as well as the burden the loan would place on the state budget. Experts add that the situation is complicated by the fact that the Orban government privatized many of Hungary’s defence companies, putting them into hands of pro-Orban private firms.
Hungary’s President, Tamas Sulyok, is expected to be removed from office next week. After an 11- hour marathon debate this week, parliament is set to vote on Monday on a comprehensive constitutional amendment that would, among other measures, introduce a 12-year term limit for MPs, restore the independence of the Constitutional Court and establish an office tasked with recovering state assets and public funds.
But the most controversial part of the amendment is the single sentence stating that, “with the entry into force of this amendment, the mandate of the President of the Republic shall automatically terminate”. Sulyok, who was elected by the Fidesz parliamentary majority only two-and-a-half years ago, argues that the measure is undemocratic.
The Presidential Office said: “The proposed amendment to the Fundamental Law infringes the principles of the rule of law, democracy and the separation of powers in several respects.” Fidesz, now in opposition, has called for a demonstration “to protect democracy and the rule of law”.
Removing Sulyok and other high-ranking figures such as the President of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court (all appointed by Fidesz) were among the election promises of the Tisza party, which pledged a complete institutional overhaul and democratic reset after 16 years of Orban governments. If Sulyok is removed, a new interim President will be elected by parliament and will remain in office until the new constitution is adopted, for a maximum of five years.
Divided Czech delegation attends NATO summit, Ukraine arms plan spark coalition rift
Divisions at the highest level of Czech politics were put on display this week as President Petr Pavel and Prime Minister Andrej Babis both attended the NATO summit in Turkey after months of dispute over who should lead the delegation.
Although Babis is officially head of the delegation, NATO protocol would put Pavel – number one in the Czech constitutional order and former chair of the NATO Military Committee – in a more senior position. The two leaders landed in Ankara with two different planes about an hour apart on Tuesday, moved around the city in different motorcades, and were pictured standing at opposite ends of a group picture of NATO leaders. Czech opposition parties criticized the government for what they called a “diplomatic embarrassment” undermining the Czech Republic’s place and voice among Western allies.
Meanwhile, reflecting on the summit, Pavel described US President Donald Trump as “unusually friendly” throughout the discussions.
“There was no fuss, President Trump was very pleasant as usual, and he was also very satisfied with everyone’s performance,” Babis said – even though Czechia is one of just three NATO members to have spent less than 2 per cent of its GDP on defence last year and will also miss the mark in 2026.
Also in Ankara this week was Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, who took many by surprise when he announced that Czechia would redirect some public funds for the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a NATO initiative coordinating the purchase of US-made weapons intended for Ukraine.
The speaker and leader of the far-right SPD party – a junior coalition partner – Tomio Okamura, was quick to respond. “The SPD fundamentally disagrees with the Czech Republic’s participation in the initiative… The issue has never been discussed at the coalition council. This is a decision by the foreign minister,” he said, vowing to raise the issue at the next meeting of coalition partners on Friday.
Talking to the Czech News Agency (CTK), political pundits found it unlikely that the rift will fundamentally threaten government unity, although the SPD will have to walk a fine line between making its position clear and assuaging smaller, more extremist parties that ran on its ballot. SPD MP Jaroslav Foldyna also countered: “Prime Minister Babis said that this is a one-time contribution, he should also say that it violates the government’s programme statement. At this point, I don’t know if we are still members of the coalition”.
Widely seen as an overture towards the United States and NATO allies despite not fulfilling its Alliance commitments, the Czech announcement is seen as a reversal of the government’s previous position not to send any money or weapons to Ukraine. Shortly after taking office, Babis said Czechia would stop contributing financially to the so-called ammunition initiative for Ukraine, but fell short of scrapping the whole programme.