Tension between opposition and PiS continues
18:16
On Monday afternoon, Polish president Andrzej Duda concluded a two-hour meeting with PiS Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, which had been convened in an attempt to overcome the disagreement between PiS lawmakers and a coalition of opposition parties. Polish parliamentary Speaker, Marek Kuchciński, was also at the meeting, the Polish press reported. Although the president reportedly attempted to instill an atmosphere of calm between the opposing sides, there was no report of a resolution to the crisis.
President Duda stressed the right to assemble, an apparent reference to the thousands of protesters gathered outside of the Parliament Sunday evening and into Monday, but, at least for the time being, he had not directly commented on the conflict over the weekend’s budgetary vote and the announcement by PiS that the number of journalists allowed in the halls of Parliament would be curtailed. On the weekend, after blocking the main chamber of the Lower House, the opposition had objected to PiS moving the vote to a smaller chamber of Parliament.
Meanwhile, the heads of opposition parties (PO, PSL and the Nowoczesna PL) issued a joint letter to Speaker Kuchciński, in which they demanded to convene “in accordance with the rules of Parliament and the Constitution,” a parliamentary hearing on December 20. They expect to “restore the ability of the media of their constitutional right to inform the public about the rights of the Polish Parliament.”
In a separate, but related, development on Monday, the new proposals for the work of journalists in the parliament will be detailed in early January, Speaker of the Senate Stanislaw Karczewski said, after a meeting with media representatives. “On January 6, the Epiphany, [we] promise to present new proposals. [We will] sit down and we'll talk about final solutions,” said Karczewski.
