Prosecutor withdraws charges after official compared president to Shrek

A controversial social media post comparing President Karol Nawrocki to the animated character Shrek has led to the withdrawal of charges against a local official. The case involved a graphic shared in 2025 by a district councilor from the PSL party, which depicted a modified image of Nawrocki's wife as a fairy-tale princess with the caption "And where is Shrek?"

Initially, the District Prosecutor's Office in Radomsko filed charges against the councilor for insulting the head of state, a potentially punishable offense with up to three years imprisonment. However, the Regional Court in Piotrków Trybunalski did not approve the prosecutor's request to return the case for further evidence gathering.

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The court did not approve this request, so we withdrew the indictment. I previously conducted a reassessment of the evidence as part of internal supervision and concluded that further support for the indictment was not expedient.

Following the court's decision, the prosecutor's office withdrew the indictment. Prosecutor Dorota Bzowska explained that a subsequent internal review revealed errors in the assessment of evidence and an incorrect interpretation of a linguistic opinion. "The court did not approve this request, so we withdrew the indictment," Bzowska stated. "I previously conducted a reassessment of the evidence as part of internal supervision and concluded that further support for the indictment was not expedient."

The accused councilor, Wojciech Ślusarczyk, expressed that he expected this outcome and believed the matter should never have involved the justice system. "It was a ridiculous case," Ślusarczyk said. "I did not use any direct abusive terms towards Mr. President. On the fairground picture, I only commented: 'And where is Shrek?', because the person in the portrait resembled Princess Fiona to me. And that was all. It never occurred to me that someone could interpret this as an attack on the majesty of the President of the Republic of Poland."

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It was a ridiculous case. I did not use any direct abusive terms towards Mr. President. On the fairground picture, I only commented: 'And where is Shrek?', because the person in the portrait resembled Princess Fiona to me. And that was all. It never occurred to me that someone could interpret this as an attack on the majesty of the President of the Republic of Poland.