This article traces the debate surrounding the COVID-19 legislation introduced in Poland in 2020, which was sharply criticized by experts. Critics argued that the laws enacted to protect society from the effects of the pandemic might also serve to politically strengthen the populist conservative-nationalist coalition of the United Right, in power since 2015, and to curtail civil liberties. They particularly objected to the draft of a retroactive COVID-19 law that provided for official immunity for extralegal or criminal acts committed in connection with measures taken during the pandemic. Such provisions, they contended, would create a caste of state officials placed above the law. Against the backdrop of the ongoing debate in Poland, this article analyzes the relevant documents of three laws that the Polish authorities enacted or proposed in response to the pandemic in 2020: the Act of 2 March 2020, the April 2020 attempt to introduce postal voting for the presidential election, and the repeal bill of August/September 2020. The article concludes that these measures were the result of a strategy by the governing United Right (the Law and Justice party and its smaller allies) to conceal the burdens imposed by the enacted laws through subsequent amendments, or to persuade the public that such legislation was indispensable in times of pandemic.
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