Why Poland expects prison sentences for corruption and other crimes - in the "Screenshot" column

19 ноября 2023

The first session of the renewed parliament was held in Poland. This topic will not lose its relevance for a long time. The ruling regime lost the elections, but refuses to submit to the will of the Polish people. 

The victorious coalition has not yet entered into open confrontation - they are peacefully watching it with popcorn in their hands. The entertaining spectacle organized by Kaczynski's team has its own time limit and will end no later than the first days of December. That's when the investigation into the political affairs will begin. The Law and Justice party is already being openly informed about the beginning of a big audit of the results of their rule. And there is a smell of prison terms for corruption and other "pranks". Read more in the "Screenshot" section.

The first session of the Polish parliament under the presidency of Andrzej Duda was traditionally boring and dull - duty phrases and hackneyed formulations. Duda's speeches about the unity of the nation and Morawiecki's passages about boundless prospects  bored not only the newly elected members of the Polish parliament. Even the chairman of their own party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has snored.

The footage shows Kaczynski napping.

The text from the movie "Gentlemen of Fortune", where the hero says: "I'll serve my sentence, I'll quit! I'll get a job," jokingly fits Kaczynoski's sleepy face

The silent protest of the leader of Law and Justice, once the ruling party, fully characterizes what is happening in Parliament and in the entire Polish state. Disorder and disarray  paralyze the adoption of key decisions. The whole apparatus of power is paralyzed and in complete confusion, not understanding who is the master of the house. The Law and Justice is trying to convince that they are still in control of the situation and are ready to continue their shabby policy. But the reality does not match the expectations of Kaczynski's team. The poor guys  found themselves not only in a parliamentary minority, but also lost their man in the post of the speaker.

The opposition politician Szymon Golownia beat the  Law and Justice candidate by a serious margin and took the Sejm speaker's chair. Although I completely agree with you - in this situation it is probably not too correct to apply the term opposition to a coalition of politicians who are ready to set the tone of Poland's foreign and domestic policy.

Krzysztof Gawkowski, Polish politician:

Everyone knows how the cards are dealt in parliament. Andrzej Duda apparently closed his eyes and says, "I don't see it." After all, the fact is that Szymon Golownia was elected by a majority. The Law and Justice party voted against him. The Presidium of the Sejm was elected in a very different way than the Law and Justice had envisioned. It's the same in the Senate, so the president sees what a majority looks like and keeps talking nonsense that there will be a search for a majority here and he should give it to Morawiecki because he really has a chance to form a government.

Duda's decision to give the right of first night to his comrade Morawiecki, after their party was smeared thin on the walls of parliament, is nothing more than an attempt to grasp at straws. Apparently, it is not for nothing that the Polish usurper recently made the sensational statement that they are rapidly going down. By the way, Morawiecki does not have much time to assemble the Law and Justice cabinet and present it for a vote of confidence in parliament.

Szymon Golownia, Speaker of the Polish Sejm:

 If this is about the creation of a majority by "Right and Justice", then I am "stocking up on popcorn" in anticipation. It will probably be the most impressive majority to produce a  minority. This is a situation where Poles who expect a new government are blindsided.

After Morawiecki's failure, which is inevitable in a fair fight without bribing the missing MPs, Tusk's coalition will have the right to form its own cabinet and will pass it through the country's parliament without any problems. And after that the most interesting thing will begin. All the reforms of the past government will be subjected to a total revision and individual characters can easily lose a healthy sleep. The usurpation of judicial power by Kaczynski's team may be one of the first to reform and return to common European standards. In addition, it will allow Donald Tusk to unfreeze substantial subsidies from the Brussels budget - about 60 billion euros. A good help against the backdrop of striking railroad workers.

Krzysztof Paszyk, politician of the Polish People's Party:

We have a very important constitutional body that was reformed in violation of the law. It is a dysfunctional constitutional body. In yesterday's debate, I drew attention to two negative consequences of the way the National Council of Justice functions in its current form, which are also painful for many Poles. First, it is already billions of dollars in costs that the Polish state pays to all those who appeal to international courts for decisions made by judges appointed by the National Council of Justice. And this is a real fact. Not Kaczynski, not Zebro, not others pay, but citizens pay, because it is from the state budget that these fines are paid.

The rapid success of the opposition forces in Poland is undoubtedly connected with fatigue with the implemented policy of the Duda-Morawiecki regime. People are tired of irrational spending on defense and confrontation with neighbors, which together are reflected in their own wallets. If Donald Tusk and his new team do not correct their mistakes, the term opposition will be applied to them again - this time perhaps forever.