Polish Premier Defends Real-Estate Dealings Ahead of EU Ballot

(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s Premier Mateusz Morawiecki said he had nothing to hide about his wealth after a newspaper reported he did not disclose a potentially lucrative real-estate deal.

Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported on Monday that Morawiecki’s family bought several hectares of farm land in western Poland 17 years ago from a local parish, paying 700,000 zloty ($181,000) for a plot worth five times more. According to the newspaper, that plot is now worth as much as 70 million zloty, because a planned road investment, and the priest who sold the land was promoted to a general in the army after Morawiecki became premier.

“We have absolutely nothing to hide,” Morawiecki said on Tuesday. “This is a personal attack on me and my wife at the end of a political campaign.”

The opposition, running neck-and-neck with the ruling Law & Justice party, on Tuesday proposed legislation to force the disclosure of assets held by spouses of top politicians.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Wojciech Moskwa, Andras Gergely

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