Kaczyński accuses opposition of breaking the law

On Wednesday morning, Poland's governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) called a conference in which they sought to deal with the two crises that have intensified during recent days in the Polish Parliament, according to a number of press reports. First, the government addressed the vote on the budget, which on Friday had been moved to a secondary chamber after opposition members organized a sit-in protest the main chamber in the Lower House, after one of their MPs was stopped from speaking. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, reportedly stated that he was willing to negotiate. “I would like to emphasize that we are all here in order to convey to the public, as well as to the opposition, something that could be described as a positive signal,” he said. He warned the lawmakers occupying parliament's debating chamber, however, that their actions were illegal and could lead to a "great calamity." The leader of one of the opposition parties Nowoczesna PL Ryszard Petru appeared to be unconvinced by Kaczyński's conciliatory tone. "Jaroslaw Kaczyński holds out his hand, and yet [he] calls us criminals. This is ridiculous,” Petru said. Kaczynski said at the conference that opposition MPs are also subject to criminal law. He added that "[if] the criminal law is broken, and we have to deal with the acceptance of actions which are obviously criminal.” Władysław PSL Kosiniak- Kamysz, the PSL leader, said that at the PiS press conference, in which Prime Minister Beata Szydło, party Chairman Kaczyński, Speakers of the Sejm and Senate Mark Kuchciński and Stanisław Karczewski were present, he did not hear any concrete proposals for overcoming the crisis. "We expect not only cool emotions, because that is the only thing you will notice. We expect specific actions,” he said.