Budget protests a result of ‘infighting’ – Karczewski

The Speaker of the Polish Senate, Stanisław Karczewski, told the television station TRWAM on Thursday that opposition protests over the passing of the state budget lacked legitimacy and were the result of “fighting between who should be the leader.” Karczewski, who sides with the ruling regime, Law and Justice (PiS), maintained that the protest was a manifestation of tensions within and between the two main opposition parties, Civic Platform (PO) and the Nowoczesna party. This fight was the inner-struggle, the struggle for leadership within the PO. Because there is a faction that wants to get rid of the [PO] president, Grzegorz Schetyna,” he said. The protest, which the opposition claimed was necessary due to the vote on the budget being held in December without the presence of almost half of parliamentary members, as well as the government’s attempts to restrict access of journalists to parliament, began on December 16, but ended on Thursday, shortly before the budget was officially passed in the main chamber of the Sejm.