What was supposed to help struggling Polish hotels, cafés, and cultural venues bounce back from Covid has instead splashed into headlines for all the wrong reasons—think yachts, luxury cars, and even a swingers’ club.
Poland’s government has frozen all payouts from its EU-funded Covid recovery program after revelations that millions meant to revive the hospitality, tourism, and culture sectors ended up funding luxury purchases and eyebrow-raising businesses.
The scandal broke wide open when officials, eager to show transparency, published an interactive map of grant recipients. But the display backfired spectacularly. Viewers spotted grants for lavish boats, luxury furniture, a pizzeria with added tanning beds, and—most infamously—a business registered at the same address as a sex club in southern Poland.
Finance Minister Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz announced Tuesday that the approximately 2,400 grants—worth around 1.2 billion zlotys (€282 million)—will now be individually audited before a single złoty more is released.
The money came from Poland’s HoReCa program, part of the country’s long-delayed €60 billion share of the EU’s Covid Recovery Fund. While the current government unlocked the funds after the 2023 election by smoothing over Brussels’ rule-of-law concerns, they also loosened application procedures to rush relief to businesses. That, critics say, opened the floodgates for abuse.
Opposition party PiS wasted no time weaponizing the scandal, staging media stunts like the mock “Ministry of Herring and Vodka” plaque outside Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s office. Tusk, for his part, pointed the finger back at PiS, blaming them for years of delays that left the new administration scrambling to spend the money before EU deadlines.
“To make sure the money got out, procedures were relaxed—and some people took advantage, spending in ways the public finds questionable, even infuriating,” Tusk admitted.
Brussels is now “following the situation closely,” but insists that oversight ultimately lies with Warsaw.
For many Poles, the images tell the story better than any press release: shiny new yachts, designer décor, and the unmistakable address of a swingers’ club—funded, in part, by a pandemic meant to be about survival, not indulgence.
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