President Duda completes first year in office

Duda tops the country’s confidence rating, which stands at 46 percent, a poll by IBRiS shows.

Over the past 12 months, he has forwarded a number of bills to parliament and vetoed four legislation proposals.

Law and Justice Senator Jan Maria Jackowski praised the president’s work so far, and pointed to the recent NATO summit hosted in Warsaw by Duda as his crowning achievement in terms of foreign policy.

Jackowski also listed Law and Justice's 500+ child benefit scheme endorsed by Duda, and the president’s bill to increase the tax-free bracket.

Duda has also submitted a bill lowering the retirement age in Poland to 65 for men and 60 for women, reversing the former ruling Civic Platform party's changes which raised the age to 67 for both sexes.

Meanwhile, Joanna Schmidt, from the opposition Nowoczesna (Modern) party, says she holds a negative view of Duda's presidency so far.

President Duda last month signed into law a new bill on the Constitutional Tribunal. The court has been at the centre of a constitutional crisis for months.

Law and Justice says the new law is a response to the crisis while the opposition has claimed that work on the bill violated legislative procedures, and that some of its provisions are unconstitutional.

During his presidency so far, Duda has undertaken close to 30 foreign visits. He submitted several legislation proposals, while rejecting four bills forwarded by the previous parliament.

Source: IAR, PAP