Polish government survives no-confidence vote

Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) government easily survived a no-confidence vote with 238 votes against and 174 for. The result had been expected, given the ruling Law and Justice party’s majority in the parliament. In a heated debate preceding the vote, main opposition leader Grzegorz Schetyna, who put his candidacy for the PM seat if the vote was successful accused the government of cutting the nation’s ties with the Western world. “You are systematically cutting the ties that we have with the West,” Schetyna said. “You are not even trying to hide your anti-West phobias. You are following a dangerous path through populism to dictatorship, we will not allow that,” said Schetyna. Poland is “a proud, sovereign state” within Europe, said Prime Minister Beata Szydło responding to the accusations. The ruling party leader and mastermind of the government’s policy, Jarosław Kaczyński, argued Poland needed deep change after Civic Platform rule from 2007-2015. “We will not step down from repairing the Republic of Poland,” Kaczyński said. “Many in Poland and in Europe do not like our reforms, but we will not depart from this path” he added.